My Favorite Harlequin
by The Rekizalb
Summary: Kankuro decides to visit the Gentleman's Club of Suna to blow off some steam after a hard day of work and forms an unorthodox friendship with an inexperienced dancer who dresses like a harlequin. KankuroxOC
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.**

Moving from a story about Sasori to one about Kankuro...expected isn't it? Don't worry, I won't kill everyone off again. I just wanted to stay canon so...

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin  
**

**-1-  
**

Even with the Shinobi World War over Kankuro remained a busy man. Politics remained politics as usual and the stress of it all reined heavily on the puppeteer's mental state. So he decided one night after the council meeting had ended, to head to the high class Gentleman's Club in Suna to blow off some steam. He had never been to a Gentleman's Club before, so the experience was quite new to him.

The interior of the place was quite royal, red curtains wrapped around the walls up to the stage. All of the furniture appeared to be hand crafted and was beautifully furnished. As Kankuro sat up in one of the seats at the bar he could see his face in every piece of glass that surrounded him. Even the dancers wore eccentrically designed garments with masquerade masks that glittered in the spotlights that were shined on them.

Upon recognizing Kankuro, the bartender automatically poured him their finest alcohol in one of the most expensive glasses they had, "How are you doing this evening my lord?" Kankuro glanced up at the man who seemed to be somewhere in his forties with grey hair swept back and a thin beard.

"Just blowing off some steam," he answered, then glanced back over to the stage several men and women where piled around, holding out their ryo. It was quite empty in the club, which was something that he didn't expect, so he turned back to the bartender, "Do you usually get this many people here?"

"Yeah, this is the usual crowd on weekdays, it's pretty nice I've got to admit," the bartender admitted as he began to dry some of his cups, "Weekends are our busiest."

Kankuro glanced back at the stage where the curtain was just rolling up. Several masked dancers in a line filed onto the stage and began to perform. One of them caught Kankuro's eye; a curvy dancer dressed as a black and purple harlequin that stood in the back. "Hey can I get a private dance here?"

"Ya like something you see eh?" the bartender looked over to the stage where Kankuro was looking, "Don't tell me, it's the really slender one in the center, Ai? She's really popular around here."

"No, the one behind her," the puppeteer pointed to the harlequin dancer.

"The harlequin? She's the new kid around here, no one's requested a private dance from her, yet," he stood back up straight, "Look's like you'll be the first to break her in."

"I guess I will be," he turned back to the bartender and took a drink.

"I'll get the House Mama to set it up for you. Please take a seat in the first room on your right," the bartender pointed to a series of rooms blocked by curtains by the bar. Kankuro picked up his drink and walked over to the first room, pushing away the red fabric. Inside was a large wooden chair with red cushions, which he took a seat in. Moments later the harlequin dancer pushed open the curtain and walked in, standing by the puppeteer as he took another sip of his drink.

Now that she was closer to him, he could make out her very detailed dressing. A short cocktail dress with a corset, which had a black, purple, and white colored diamond design. A black masquerade mask hid her eyes and purple diamonds were drawn right below the mask on both sides of her face. She also had a purple and black jesters hat on which hid all but a few strands of her brown hair.

She put her hands on her hips and confoundedly asked, "You wanted a private dance, from me?"

"Yeah," he impatiently answered, taking another sip of his drink, waiting for her to make a move.

"You aren't really serious are you?" she continued to question him, moving to a spot on the wall and looking down at him. He noticed the piercing at the end of her tongue.

"I'm completely serious," he continued, patting the armrest of the chair, "Get on with it already."

"Listen, I'm sorry but I know nothing about giving private dances," she admitted.

He took another sip, "I know, the bartender mentioned I'm your first customer."

"Maybe we can just talk or something instead?" she brought out three kunai, "I can juggle if you want?"

"Look, do you even know who I am?" Kankuro asked with one eyebrow arched, sitting up in the chair.

"No one I recognize," she held her bent arms out sighing, "I don't get out much."

"I'm the Kazekage's brother," the puppeteer spat bluntly, watching the astonishment in the dancer's face.

"What? But why would the Kazekage's own brother come to a Gentleman's Club?" she dropped the kunai, "Shouldn't you have asked for Ai instead?"

The waiting was beginning to frustrate Kankuro, "Can you just get on with it!"

The harlequin dancer sighed and absently sat her leg up on Kankuro's thigh, moving a hand up to her thigh and pulling down her sock sexily and tossing them it the floor, then repeated the action with her other leg. When both were on the floor she got up onto his thighs with both knees and reached behind her back.

To Kankuro's displeasure, she brought out three kunai and began to juggle them in front of him, "I didn't ask you to juggle."

She let the three kunai fall to the floor around the chair, "What? It's part of the show!"

"I still never asked for them," he reminded her in an annoyed tone.

"What do you expect me to do then?" she bent her arms out in defeat, "Suck you off and send you on your way? I'm not Ai, you shouldn't have even requested me."

Kankuro sighed and lowered his head in defeat, "I'm sorry, I've just had difficult day so far."

The harlequin dancer swiftly turned so she was lying sideways on his upper thighs, holding her legs over one side of the chair and using the other side's armrest for her elbow. She used her hand to support her elbow; "Tell me about it."

"It's just, the usual problems," he sighed, "We lost numerous shinobi in the war and rogue mercenary groups are making it difficult to maintain order. Then there's dealing with the daily qualms of the important clans."

"So how are you dealing with it?" she questioned, looking up at him, "I'm not asking for you to spill any important secrets or anything..."

"Helping the Kazekage manage the problems, I had to lead a team to take down one tricky group of rogues," Kankuro continued to drink from his glass.

The green-eyed harlequin laid a hand at the top of his chest and seductively slid it down, "Oh you poor, poor man." She rolled off of Kankuro's lap and stood behind him, massaging his shoulders.

"It's not so bad," he admitted, "My brother's a great leader..."

"And I'm sure you're just as great a bodyguard," she replied sweetly as she continued to massage his shoulders and back.

He looked to his side and eyed her curiously, "So if you can't give a private dance, why'd you even become a dancer?"

"To make money of course," the harlequin answered, "The House Mama gave me the job as an act of pity. It's hard to live alone jobless these days."

He took another sip of his drink, "So you know the House Mama personally?"

She chuckled; "The House Mama's one of the only ones here who knows my_ true identity_."

Kankuro was slightly intrigued by the thought, "So who are you under that mask? A kunoichi?"

She rolled her knuckles across his back, "I'm not kunoichi anymore, I'm too weak." She yawned, looking up at the clock on the wall, "And my shift also ended about five minutes ago, but I like you, so you can have me for another few more."

"I'm honored," he sarcastically remarked, holding up his glass to toast and then taking another sip.

"I'm serious," she replied, "It's interesting to hear about what it's like living in prominence. Being able to walk into a Gentleman's Club and be treated like royalty. You gonna come back here again?"

"Will you be back here?" the harlequin's green eyes looked at him expectantly.

He finally finished his drink and stood up from the chair, "If you continue to work here," he looked back at her and smirked, "And you learn how to give a private dance."

Her cheeks puffed up, "How about I just give you a sensual massage instead? I'm good at that."

"As long as you _actually _give me a massage," he chuckled as he walked out.

The harlequin grabbed her socks from off of the floor and followed him out, standing in his way, "You must be inexperienced or something, but you never tipped me."

"Maybe next time," he brushed her off and walked back to the bar.

She turned away and stomped back to the dressing room. There she took off her face mask and wiped away all of the face paint that powdered her face. When her face was clear, she shuffled around in her bag and pulled out several piercings. While staring into the mirror, she re-pierced her face with great precision. Then took off her hat, letting her long brown hair fall to her sides. She pinned it up with sticks, then quickly undressed from the rest of her harlequin garb and into a regular Suna shinobi uniform.

When she was finished she peeked out of the dressing room to see if the Kankuro was still there. There he sat, by the bar joking around with the bartender. She decided that she would try to sneak by them without being seen. But as she quietly walked by the bar to the entrance, the bartender called to her; "Night Maiko!"

Maiko turned her head away from the bartender and Kankuro so he could not recognize her face and breathed in, trying to change her voice then answered, "Night Daisuke." Then quickly, she hurried out of the club, with Kankuro watching her leave.

"Who was that?" he asked as she walked out.

The bartender chuckled to himself, "Oh, just one of our many patrons."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.**

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin  
**

**-2-  
**

The following night, Maiko waited at the bar of the Gentleman's Club in her shinobi uniform, doubting that the Kazekage's brother would ever return after her performance the previous day. "Why would the Kazekage's brother want to return here again," she joked to Daisuke, "It would be scandalous!"

The bartender just continued to wipe the bar clean, "Who knows, maybe he might make this his hangout spot?"

"Or maybe he'll come back and just request Ai like everyone told him to," she mumbled, taking another drink while glaring over at the stage where the beautiful Ai was performing alone. She had a pretty, short pink dress with numerous white ribbons that were tied into bows around it. Her face was powdered white with luscious red lips, shiny blonde curls, and sparkling blue eyes. Unlike the other dancers that worked there, she never wore her mask because she didn't care about the audience knowing her identity-she was a star. Maiko continued to glare at her.

Daisuke looked over to where she was glaring, "Jealous of her?"

"She's like a princess, everyone loves her. Christ, her stage name _is_ Love!" she sighed and took another swig of her drink.

The bartender frowned and tried cheering her up, "Underneath all of that makeup and costume is a sad woman with no talent for anything but playing through the fantasies of men and women. You on the other hand, are a shinobi."

"I'm a performer!" she corrected him, "I came here hoping I could practice my performance, but I'm not what these people want to see; a fat harlequin who juggles kunai. They want to see a sex symbol that makes them feel inferior to everything they are or makes them horny. I don't and can't do that."

"Have you talked to the House Mama about that?" he asked, moving on to the cups that had been recently washed by his assistant. He started to delicately dry each one, "She might be able to get you a gig somewhere else as a performer?"

"It's not that...I quit being a shinobi because people didn't value my abilities," she continued to sigh and drink, "I just want to prove everyone wrong, I want to show that fighting can be a performance!"

Just then, the two heard another person walk in, which was odd since they had already seen all of their usual customers stroll inside. Maiko refused to turn around and look, guessing who it might be, instead covering her face. As she assumed, Kankuro took a seat at the bar two seats from her. Daisuke noticed the woman's shyness but greeted the new customer anyway; "Welcome Lord Kankuro, I didn't expect to see you today!"

The puppeteer chuckled, "I was wondering if the harlequin dancer was around here tonight." Maiko continued to slowly turn her head away from him and leaned on her arm that hung on the bar.

Daisuke assumed she wasn't planning for this to happen and tried to cover for her, "I haven't seen _her_ tonight yet." He then glanced over to Maiko with a questionable look, she silently shook her head, "Nope, I don't think she's here."

"What a shame," he opened his wallet and waved several ryo in the air, "I was planning to tip her this time, maybe I'll just pay that other girl like she suggested, instead."

Maiko worried that her cover had been blown and sucked in air to try to change her voice again, "I'd ask the House Mama, she always knows where everyone is."

Kankuro turned to look at her, "I think I'll do that, thanks."

When Kankuro distanced himself far enough from the bar Daisuke whispered to her, "You know you should've expected something like this to happen."

"Like you saw this coming either," she harshly whispered back.

The bartender shook his head, "If I were you, I'd hurry and get some kinda costume on before he gets back."

"I guess I'll have to," Maiko slid off of her seat and snuck around to the dressing room, slipping in without being seen. She quickly undressed, pulled on her cocktail dress, put her mask on and redrew her two purple triangles. She ignored her socks and piercings, then decided to let her hair down and threw on her jester hat. She peeked out from the dressing room to see that Kankuro had made his way back to the bar, so she saucily pranced over to it too.

Kankuro noticed her and set his drink down, "I was just looking for you."

He slid off his seat as Maiko leaned onto the bar, "The House Mama told me."

"You told me to come back and here I am, so about my sensual massage?" he pulled out his wallet, which she stared right at.

"Oh that sensual massage," she pointed to the first room again, "Please this way, this way." Kankuro opened the curtain of the first room again to find that the interior had changed. Instead of a chair, there was bed with similar furnishings to the chair and a rack on the wall with numerous types of oils. She motioned for him to lay down on the bed and he obeyed.

"Now just, take off your shirt or something," she stuttered while looking through the oils. She had not expected him to come back, much less to expect that massage she had promised him. He did as she asked, undoing his sash then removing his kimono and turtleneck while she nervously shuffled through the rack of oils. Maiko turned back to Kankuro who was laying on his stomach, patiently waiting for her.

"You're going to do something this time right?" he asked, looking up at her.

The harlequin walked over to him with her bottle of oil, pouring a bit into her right palm and smearing it along Kankuro's back, "Of course, yeah, definitely!" She began using her left hand as well, making circles on his back, "Comfortable, right?"

He began to relax as she continued her slow and circular motions, "Sticky...but you said you knew how to give good massages, so I'm trusting you this time."

Maiko moved her hands from Kankuro then focused her energy on pulling the steel ball piercing out of her tongue and performed several hand seals. The harlequin's cheeks puffed up, she began to spit out small steel balls around his bare back, which disappeared once they made contact. _Tiny Massaging Bullet Technique_ she referred to it.

Kankuro groaned in pleasure, since he could not see her actions, he asked, "So what are you doing now anyway? It feels good."

She caught her loose steel ball piercing with her front teeth and spit it into her hand, ending the jutsu, "A little technique of my own. I told you massages were my specialty." After pocketing the steel ball, she moved her hands back to Kankuro's bare back. In a soft chopping motion, she moved up and down his spine, then switched between chopping and extending the skin with her thumb and index fingers.

"Ah yeah," he continued to groan in pleasure, "That feels great. Why do you work here as a dancer, you should work at a spa or something?"

"Because the House Mama hired me _here_," she explained while she worked, "And I want to be a performer. I'm only giving you a massage because I refused to give you a dance last time." Her fingers continued the swift motions across his spine, she then pulled one of her bare feet up and carefully massaged the skin by the area of the spine opposite of her hands.

"So if you want to be a performer here, what do you do outside of this club?" he curiously asked.

"Why would I tell you that? It would ruin the mystery of it!" she laughed, "Besides, what would someone like me do outside of a place like this?"

"Who knows? Maybe you're a spy," she raised an eyebrow and he glanced back at her, "You did ask me what the Kazekage was up to last time."

"I don't have the skills to be a spy," she sighed, "Maybe Ai is."

Kankuro turned his head forward again, "You mention her a lot, do you two have some kind of rivalry or something?"

"It's not that," she thought about it for a moment herself, trying to describe her disgust, "Ai's just a stripper although she tends to go further than that, for the attention. I'm just a performer who's paycheck happens to come from this place." She brought her foot back down, but didn't set it on the floor.

Maiko pulled a towel off of the rack and wiped his back, her foot, then flipped it over and wiped her hands off on it, "Now I've got that oil all over my hands, foot, and tongue piercing. You happy with the massage at least?"

Kankuro sat up on the bed, flexing the muscles in his back, "I think I am, that felt good."

Maiko held her hand out to him, "My payment?"

He furrowed his brow and sighed, "That really killed the mood..."

"I have to support the roof over my head somehow," she emptily explained as the Kazekage's brother shifted through his wallet and handed her some ryo, "Until I magically have it made, for life."

"You don't have a day job?" he wondered aloud as he put his wallet away.

The harlequin shifted through her earnings, "I wasn't very good at_ that_, so I _quit_." She pocketed her money and walked to the doorway, "I hope you've enjoyed your time here, yadda yadda, I'm going." Maiko left him and rushed for the dressing room again.

At the same time, Kankuro put his clothes back on and walked out to the bar again, motioning at the bartender, "Did she leave already?"

"Who?" Daisuke asked, wondering if he meant Maiko as the harlequin or the shy kunoichi at the bar earlier.

"The harlequin dancer," he looked around, "I was hoping to catch her on the way out."

Daisuke assumed that he would once again have to cover for her as she removed her disguise, "Oh yeah, she just clocked out and went home."

The puppeteer frowned and walked out, calling back, "Thanks for the information."

Moments later Maiko appeared from the dressing room with her Sunagakure uniform back on, readjusting her tongue piercing. She walked back over to her old seat on the bar and slid up, "Is he gone?"

"He inquired to the whereabouts of _the harlequin dancer_, so I told him that _she_ had already left for the night," Daisuke explained as he leaned over to the cabinet holding his cups and brought one over to Maiko.

Before he could pour her a drink she held her hand up, "No thanks, I think I'll go home." The kunoichi slid off of her bar seat and walked out, "Night Daisuke!"

As he returned the empty cup he called back, "Night Maiko!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.  
**

To anyone who reads this; sorry I didn't update sooner, I've been sick.

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin  
**

**-3-  
**

When Maiko awoke the next morning, she could see from the window behind her bed, that it was nice out. The tip that Kankuro had given her the following night sat on her nightstand. She reached over to it, shuffling through the ryo. Her stomach began to growl, so she slid out of bed and tottered over into the adjacent room of her small apartment, looking for something to eat. Swinging every cabinet in the room open for her quest for food, the kunoichi realized that her makeshift kitchen had been wiped clean of edibles.

With a groan, she looked back into her bedroom where the money sat, waiting for her, "I guess I'll be using the tip on food." Maiko tottered back into her bedroom and looked down by the floor of her bed where she had tossed all of her equipment from the previous day. She leaned down and threw her chuunin jacket on, tied her headband to her arm, and slid her shoes on.

As she walked out the door of her apartment, she ran into her landlord who seemed to have waited for her and got straight to business; "I need your rent for the month." Maiko's stomach groaned even louder as she thought about how much she would have to give him, she had enough to pay two months' worth, but that would mean she would only be able to buy enough food for the week. He continued to press her however, "Does your silence mean that I'll be receiving my rent late again?"

The kunoichi sighed and ended up handing over enough to cover two months, which surprised him. The landlord counted up his earnings and then held them over his head to check their authenticity, "It looks like the real thing."

"I don't see why you didn't believe me, I've never given you fake money," she angrily mumbled, walking past him with what little she had left. She counted up the rest as she took several stairs down to the ground. Her stomach continued to grumble violently, "Ugh at this rate...I'll have to ask Daisuke if I can work the bar for a few days..."

Meanwhile Kankuro stood outside the door to the Kazekage's office, he knocked lightly, "Hey Gaara?"

From the other side of the door he heard a low voice say; "Come in." Kankuro entered and saw his younger brother looking over a mission report, "What do you need?"

"I was wondering if I could look up a shinobi in your records," he stepped up to his desk, recalling the conversation he had with the House Mama the previous night as he walked home.

The burly brunette woman had stopped him outside of the Gentleman's club, "I have a favor to ask of you since you seem so interested in my harlequin." He allowed her to continue and she began; "Maiko, the harlequin, is my niece and my student."

The two continued to walk and talk the way back, "So she is a kunoichi? I noticed she likes to avoid me when she's wearing her uniform."

The older woman gave a hearty laugh, "That's my Maiko! Or now is, she was really a dedicated kunoichi once. But certain events..." Her voice trailed off so she started again; "Maiko and Ai were both once a part of a three-man squad I led. Maiko and her other team-mate, Isamu, were quite talented, they even passed the chuunin exams. However, Ai only seemed to show interest in Isamu and never put much effort into being a shinobi..."

"Is that why she doesn't like Ai?" the puppeteer asked as he recalled the many times the princess dancer been brought up, "She's mentioned a lot."

"Believe it or not, those two were once best friends," the House Mama continued to reminisce, "That was until they were assigned their first B-rank mission with Maiko as the team leader."

Kankuro could tell where that was going, "Something went wrong I assume?"

"Let me paint you a picture," the House Mama slowly closed her eyes and recalled a memory from many years ago.

She stood waiting at the village gates, a few years before the war, when she saw Maiko and Ai walking back, spaced apart from one another. When the two got closer, the older woman could see that Ai was crying while Maiko was holding a Sunagakure headband stained with blood and burns in one hand and a severed arm in the other.

"Where's Isamu?" she asked, when the two stopped in front of her. Maiko said nothing, but handed over the headband with a grave look on her face. Ai on the other hand broke out into tears.

"It's all your fault Maiko! You let him die! You should be ashamed to call yourself a leader!" the young blonde screamed at the young brunette who held her head down and remained silent.

"He sacrificed himself for the mission," she finally spoke, "The target perished with him." The brunette handed over the severed arm, "This is all we have left of the bounty to identify him."

The blonde continued to scream at her, "You let Isamu walk into a mine field when you could have finished the target off beforehand!"

"Please give Isamu's family my condolences," the young brunette trudged past her superior and back into the village slumped over, "We wouldn't have completed the mission without his sacrifice."

The young blonde ripped her headband from around her shoulder and chucked it at the chuunin, shouting, "I don't wanna be a shinobi of Suna if there are superiors like Maiko willing to casually throw away lives!" The blonde then ran off in the other direction, crying, leaving her jonin instructor with the burden of fixing things.

"If that's why Ai hates Maiko, why does Maiko hate Ai?" Kankuro commented as the House Mama opened her eyes again and returned from her memory.

"After Ai left, she refused to speak to Maiko again and managed to turn all of their mutual friends against her. She didn't realize that Maiko had taken Isamu's death just as hard, maybe even harder," the older woman sighed, "You know how children are. So Ai left the team and became a dancer at my husband's club and Maiko joined the war effort."

"So why did Maiko decide to quit being a shinobi?" the puppeteer questioned, "She didn't seem crippled or anything of the sort."

The older woman raised her index finger, "_That_ is my problem! I don't know why either, she won't talk to me about it. I try to push her to continue training, and she does sometimes, on the audience..."

"What training would that entail?" he stared suspiciously at the woman through the corner of his eyes.

She gave out another hardy laugh, "She's a genjutsu specialist, although I doubt she's used any on you!" Her laughing came to a halt, "Anyway, my question is; Can you help me convince her to resume her training as a shinobi and quit the job at the club? I'll have my husband give you a nice fat discount on drinks..."

Kankuro thought about it for a bit as they neared the Kazekage's home, "I think I'll sleep on it."

The House Mama stopped and watched as he walked further away, "I'll see you at the bar tomorrow then, don't mention that I told you this to Maiko."

Kankuro returned from his thoughts when Gaara finally called to him from his desk, "Are you awake?"

"Just daydreaming," he tried to laugh it off, scratching the back of his neck, "So about the records?"

"I said you could already, while you were busy daydreaming," the Kazekage looked back down at his report, "Just don't mess anything up, it took months for Temari to re-organize it all." On that note, Kankuro turned his attention to the many filing cabinets that lined the walls, thus began his long search to find Maiko's file.

Maiko meanwhile was in the marketplace shopping for food when she came upon a stand of a seafood vendor. The stand was filled with assorted species of smaller fish as well as some squid, octopus, and even shark. The kunoichi's stomach continued to violently growl even louder, _I guess this is dinner._

She walked over to the vendor and held out half of her money, "Please give me as many pounds of squid as this can buy!"

He counted her 100 ryo and shifted over to his containers of squid, pulling out a little more than six pounds worth and tying it in a cloth then held it out to her, "Have a nice day!"

Her stomach continued to growl as she looked around for a vegetable vendor. Eventually she came upon the only such vendor that had not sold out already, all he had left was spinach. Maiko held out the rest of her money, "Can I have four pounds of spinach?" The vegetable vendor pulled the rest of his crops into a bag and handed it to her. As Maiko walked away, she looked down at her purchases, "Ugh...I can't wait to eat!"

When she finally returned home, she quickly got to work on her kitchenette, cutting then cooking the squid in a pan of oil and washing off the spinach. Right as she was about to add the spinach, she heard a knock on her door. Maiko quickly tossed the spinach in the pan and went to the door to see who had knocked. When she peeked out the eye-hole it was none other than Kankuro. Somehow he had found out where she lived, which caused her to panic. The kunoichi ran to her room and chucked all of her harlequin paraphernalia into the back of her closet, then locked it up tight as Kankuro continued to knock; "Is anyone home?"

Maiko then fixed her uniform and, taking a deep breath, finally opened the door, "Hello?"

"I have a request from the Kazekage for you regarding a mission," he handed an envelope to her. If he was there to simply give her a letter from the Kazekage, she assumed that this meant he didn't realize that she was the harlequin.

Maiko accepted the letter from him but looked at it with confoundedly, "But I'm not even listed as an active shinobi!"

"Take it up with the Kazekage tomorrow," he turned and left.

As soon as he did, the kunoichi ripped open the letter, which was indeed an official summons for a mission straight from the office of the Kazekage. According to it, they were looking for all the help they could get to take down the rogues that Kankuro had mentioned to her when they first had met. However, she faintly recalled being taken off the listings as an active shinobi several months before she began to work for her aunt. She threw the letter on the counter and resumed tending her dinner, she would take care of it tomorrow.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.  
**  
I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has beared with me while I took forever to finally update. Because of this, I've decided that I'd post one chapter for every month I haven't updated between today and tomorrow; so 8 chapters.

English 101 classes are just that depressing, I swear.

Meanwhile, my plotter-ma-bobber says that there will be a total of 15 chapters; plus the epilogue.

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin**

**-4-**

After Kankuro had left, Maiko decided to drop by the Gentleman's Club again in an attempt to pick up some more hours. If she wanted to eat for another week she would have to take on a bit more extra work and she was sure her uncle wouldn't mind the help. And he didn't. So she felt content with washing dishes from the bar while watching the performances. Glaring down the pretty princess in pink as she dazzled the many customers who flung their savings at the stage with each movement. Ai lived in an apartment on the other side of town, she lived just like Maiko even though she had the money to live in a nice stately home. Although, she was sure Ai's apartment didn't have monthly infestations of rats as her's did. Nor did she not have heating in the colder of months. Maybe that was where the line had been drawn.

As more money coated the stage, Maiko began to work even more furiously on the dishes, breaking one without noticing it. Daisuke who had come to get another set of glasses to clean noticed the suds inside of the sink were beginning to turn red and grabbed the glass from his niece's hands. There were numerous scratches from her nails and drops of blood soaking it. He then noticed all of the cuts on Maiko's hands and finally turned off the water.

"Maiko, calm down," Daisuke reprimanded her as he took her hands and cleaned them with a rag, "Look at what you're doing to yourself-and the china!" Maiko finally snapped from her thoughts and noticed herself the damage she had created.

"Uncle...I'm sorry...let me," she stuttered, ashamed of the mess she had created, "Take it out of my paycheck." Daisuke, although he felt sorry for his niece, also knew that she had to control herself. Ai wasn't worth breaking precious china over. He continued to clean Maiko's hands and reached for a first aid pack under the bar to bandage them.

"We'll have to," he admitted to her as he began to tightly wrap his nieces hands up, "While you're working here you have to let your anger go, you have to be professional."

"I'm...I'm so sorry Daisuke," she was at a loss for words herself. However, instead of taking all of the blame, she looked back at Ai as the pretty princess was taking a bow. She'd admit that she needed to control her anger, but she would never admit that her anger was her fault. Ai was the problem, Ai was the one who was causing her such grief. Ai had probably caused more problems in her own head than she had even caused through words.

When morning came Maiko cleaned her hands again and re-wrapped them with new bandages. While she had been much more content with sitting around moping for the rest of the day, she recalled the summons and dragged herself to the Kazekage's office with the letter Kankuro had given her the previous night. The kunoichi was quite sure that the summons had just been some small mistake that the Kazekage would be able to easily fix. That's what she hopped at least. When she finally arrived and entered the office, the Kazekage was hard at work once again with Kankuro standing with his arms crossed at his side.

The Kazekage looked up, "Yes, what is it?"

Maiko sucked in air in an attempt to hide her voice once again, and held out the letter, "I believe there's been some kind of mistake, I received this letter yesterday requesting me for a mission, but I'm not even suppose to be listed as an active shinobi."

Gaara reached over to the side of his desk and pulled a folder out from under his large stack, "Your file was never officially removed from the listings, it was just _misplaced_. So you have always been listed on active duty." Even though Gaara knew that was a lie, a lie Kankuro had begged him to make, he did not have the patience to sit and argue it all morning.

Admitting to the disorganization of his office was quite a ballsy thing to do, Maiko noted. However, she was quite sure that even this talk of her name never being removed from active duty seemed wrong. The kunoichi opened her mouth to argue but immediately closed it, realizing that the Kazekage could have been right, it had been quite a while and sometimes things went overlooked. She glanced over to the puppeteer by his side. At the same time, she was also worried that if she argued back Kankuro would know that she was the harlequin, she had mentioned that she quit her day job to him on one of their previous meetings. So instead, she stood up straight and replied, "I see...about the mission?"

"It's a simple, B-rank mission," the Kazekage expertly grabbed a paper from one of his piles without his eyes having ever left their focus on Maiko and read, "You are to exterminate a camp of rogue shinobi not far from the city's walls and take one alive for interrogation."

"You didn't just pick that randomly did you-"

"And Kankuro will be tagging along to assist you," the Kazekage finished.

Maiko's mouth was left agape. Having to take a mission was one thing, but having to watch her every action in order to keep Kankuro in the dark about her identity as the harlequin was another. Especially when she had to breathe in air to conceal her voice ever time she spoke. "What? I don't need help!"

"This isn't just a mission, but a test of your abilities as a shinobi," Gaara slid the paper into her file, "You will leave tonight with Kankuro, who will guide you to the position of the enemy camp. It shouldn't take you long to clear it out since there are only ten of them." The Kazekage then straightened his posture and clasped his hands together, "You are dismissed." The kunoichi decided that there was no point in arguing and simply left. She would need the time to pack and think of a plan while she waited for nightfall.

When the door to the Kazekage's office closed and the tense air of the room faded, Gaara turned to his brother who was still standing, cross-armed beside him, "You do realize that you owe me for this?"

Kankuro laughed, "Well, it is killing two birds with one stone, right? You don't have to deal with another set of rogue shinobi and I get to test this girl's abilities in action."

"Upon your return you will be taking care of all of my chores for the next week," the Kazekage declared in the most neutral, yet serious face he could muster, "and all of my paperwork."

"All that just to set up a mission?" the puppet master was sure he himself was also being duped somehow.

The red-head shook his head, "I don't particularly like having to lie for others. It's a good thing that she didn't question it either, I wasn't particularly planing to convince her that I hadn't just bullshited her."

The puppet master began to leave and prepare himself for the ensuing mission as well, "Well, I appreciated it Gaara...thanks."

Back at her apartment, Maiko was preparing her last meal before she would go to meet up with Kankuro at the city gates for the mission. While not the most exquisite supper, she decided to reheat her leftover squid and spinach from the previous night. It also wasn't that messy of a meal either, as she didn't have the time to spend cleaning up. The kunoichi sat cross-legged on the floor by her short dinner table with her Suna uniform already on, hair tied up to keep it out of her face, and only her tongue piercing still on. While she didn't have any specific plan of action, Maiko had written down some notes on what she might say in regards to certain questions Kankuro might throw at her in order to engage in small talk.

One she speculated was; _What do you do for a living? _To which she would answer, _I'm a tailor. _Which could lead to the question; _What kinds of clothes have you made? _or _Have you ever designed anything for the Kazekage?_ and hopefully not; _Have you ever designed anything for any performers? _Maybe she shouldn't mention her occupation. Maybe she should say; _I'm just a layabout._ But then again, she'd have to get the money for her apartment somewhere... Maiko decided that she would simply ignore any questions.

A knock on her door scattered Maiko's thoughts, she was quite sure no one would have reason to visit her so late, even the landlord. He only extorted his tenants from nine to five. The kunoichi slowly set her knife and fork down and slowly paced towards the door. Maybe Kame had come to tell her that she was fired. Maybe it was Ai to check up on her self-worth and make sure it was still low. She slowly opened the door. Maybe it was the ghost of Isamu come tell her she would be greeted by the ghosts of mission's past, present, and future that night. Although she was quite sure that if it were him, he wouldn't come until it was much later.

No, it was Kankuro. She sucked in air, it was much too early for this, "Why are you here so early?"

"Well, I was wondering if you were ready. I thought we could start to make our way to the camp earlier so we could come up with a plan?" it was more of a statement than a question. Maiko, who had not expected Kankuro's visit, just stood there and stared at him. Kankuro wasn't sure how to take her staring however, and his stomach began grumbling when he noticed the food she had sitting on her table. With an embarrassed expression he asked, "You wouldn't mind it if I had some would you? I'm kinda hungry..."

For a minute more, she only stared. Kankuro was beginning to feel a bit unnerved by it, but then she snapped out of it and finally answered, "Sure..." The kunoichi turned around and walked back to her cabinets to grab another plate. Kankuro sat down across from her plate at the short dinner table, licking his lips hungrily. She sat a plate in front of him then returned to her plate.

As she silently ate the remainder of the squid and spinach from her plate Maiko kept her eyes fixated on her plate while her visitor began to eat. And then began to start spitting the food out. She sighed, that was probably a day's worth of food he would probably waste. "What's wrong with it?"

Kankuro realized that he had offended her and explained, "It's not what you think. The cooking's great but..." He picked out a piece of the green offender, "I'm partial to spinach. Actually, it's my least favorite food, ever."

Maiko continued to stare at him, not specifically at him per say, but the food. The food that she would not be eating tomorrow.

"Listen...tomorrow I'll make it up to you," he began, noticing her sorrow over the fallen food, "I'll take you to a barbeque tomorrow for dinner, my treat."

Maiko just sighed again and threw her emptied plate in the sink. It would be a long night.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.**

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin**

**-5-**

The two Suna shinobi marched out at dusk into the surrounding desert on their mission. Actually, that's not completely true. There was no marching and you could barely say _they_. It was more like _that shinobi_ and _that kunoichi_ _that just happened_ to be on the same mission. Maiko had decided that the best way to not arouse suspicion from the Kazekage's brother was to completely avoid him as she did at the bar. To her there was absolutely no way that Kankuro would ever piece together Maiko's behavior to that of the harlequin if she avoided him.

Of course she was wrong, but she didn't know that.

Maiko stopped in her tracks and Kankuro walked up to her to see what had stopped her. She sharply turned to him, "Listen, I think it'd be better if we didn't work together."

"It didn't really look like we were anyway," he admitted.

"I know but...I don't really need your help," she urged him. She was sure that no matter what she said, it wouldn't matter. The Kazekage had told her that it was a test anyway, she wasn't sure why she was being tested. She wasn't sure it even mattered.

Surprising her, he gave in saying, "If that's what you want..." and walked past her, continuing on towards the encampment.

Maiko just watched in awe as he left her there. At the same time, she knew that he probably would be waiting for her not far from the encampment before making any strikes. It was understandable, but the kunoichi had other plans.

While at the Ninja Academy, Maiko was very far from being at the top of her class. Rather, she was somewhere in the bottom half. Her biggest problem that he teachers noticed was that she gave up on herself easily. While other kids would practice with one another on the new taijutsu moves they had learned, if Maiko messed up, she would sit by the side of the school and just mope.

That was probably when she started to juggle miscellaneous weapons. First it was shoes, then it was books, then it was pets, then she had finally decided to take on the challenge of tackling kunai. In order to prepare for her juggling coup de grace, she would trade with the other students for their kunai with change she had pick-pocketed from them.

Then in the yard during their free period, Maiko stood out in the middle and threw up her first kunai, then second, then third, as the other students began to notice, stop what they were doing, and crowd around her. Some even threw in their kunai and a few miniature fans for her as well.

Then one of the other students called out, "I bet you can't do that while walking!" Maiko took it as a challenge and the crowd moved as to give her a clear line to move in. Maiko continued to focus and pushed forwards into the middle of the crowd, slinging the weapons around in an oval, like clockwork. It was almost as though the line that she had been given was a tightrope hundreds of feet above the ground.

As she slowly reached the end of the line, another student called, "Bet you can't finish by shooting them into the targets!" Another challenge Maiko would accept. The young kunoichi began to slow down and focus on the target. she caught the first kunai that dropped and slung it at the target, hitting the third ring. Then the next, and the next, and the next, slowly hitting closer to the center of the target until she was left clutching only the fans.

Then she bowed, that's what a performer did when they finished didn't they?

She was the talk of the class for a short while. Even though she was below average with ninjutsu, taijutsu, tracking, wilderness survival, teamwork, and medical jutsu, she showed some type of promise. She was slowly becoming better at her weapons use and her focus helped her with her chakra control.

Then there was her skill in genjutsu. Like her juggling, it was something she learned while sitting along by the side of the school. At first she had used genjutsu to help her trick others so she could pick-pocket their money. With continued use, she become increasingly better at performing techniques. She then began to combine genjutsu with weaponry and found the results to be quite effective.

When she graduated from the Academy and was put in the jonin Kame's team, the older kunoichi realized the young girl's skills and focused on them, while also teaching her some easier ninjutsu techniques that could compliment them. It also helped that her team-mates, Isamu and Ai, were also skilled at ninjutsu and taijutsu respectively.

As Maiko continued to walk, she began to see what she assumed was the enemy camp. She stopped and sat behind a rock a few yards from the outside of it. With a set of binoculars, she scoped out the camp. As the Kazekage had warned, there were ten heavily armed shinobi lurking around. It seemed from a distance that some of the shinobi were about to sleep so security wouldn't be as tight. It made sense to use a stealthier, silent approach.

Inside the encampment a few of the guards were circling a larger tent where their allies were sleeping when one of them noticed what he thought were drops of rain. He stopped and held out a hand. He felt more drops of rain fall onto it and looked around to one of the other guards on duty and called, "Hey, did you feel that too?"

"No, what?" the other one called back.

"It's raining," the first one called. The other guard also put a hand out and felt some rain fall onto his arm.

"It is raining, I wish I'd known that earlier!" the other guard began to complain, "I don't want to sleep drenched." It slowly began to rain harder and the guards hurried to close their tents as water accumulated on the ground.

One of the guards posted on the southern side of the camp sat down on a rock and opened his canteen and began to drink from it, not caring about getting drenched by the rain. Actually, the rain didn't seem to make him feel cold, which was odd. It could have also been that he was intoxicated, but he couldn't let anyone around him know that without getting reprimanded. So when an arm slowly rose from one of the puddles and grabbed his leg, he just assumed that he had been drinking too much.

Another arm rose from the same puddle and pulled him to the ground, which caused him to panic. One of the hands quickly moved to his mouth to muffle him while the other moved back into the puddle and brought out a kunai. The drunken guard continued to shuffle against the arms coming from the puddle while they pulled him to the ground and slit his throat. As the drunken guard started to bleed out, he realized that he had been caught in a genjutsu.

With one of his hands, he grabbed a senbon from his pocket and continuously stabbed it into his thigh until he broke through it noticing that there was no rain and saw a kunoichi sneaking away from him. He gurgled a bit on his blood, which made the kunoichi look back at him. Although she knew that he could see her, she realized that he would be dead within a moment and didn't have a chance at warning any of the guards.

Not far from him, another of the guards was pulled to the ground by another set of hands coming from a puddle, muffling him while the rest of the kunoichi rose from the puddle to stand on his neck, crushing it and dragging the body away behind a set of larger rocks. As she set the corpse down, she noticed one of the other guards nearby had heard something and came to check out what was going on. While this one was still under the genjutsu, he knew instinctively something was wrong.

When Maiko finally grabbed onto his legs and caused him to fall into the sand, he let out a shrill shriek to the rest of the encampment, "Intruder!" Maiko quickly slit his throat as well, tossing his body with the other one and rushed away to the stone she had started at. However, her escape caught the attention of four of the guards, who chased after her.

"Shit, shit, shit shit!" Maiko cursed herself. Maybe teaming up with Kankuro wasn't too bad of an idea considering how outmatched she was now. As she race over to the rock with her four pursuers still in hot pursuit, she slide over the top of her rock, prepared to catch them in another genjutsu when she noticed Kankuro sitting next to her.

"What are you...?"

Before she could complete the question, he chuckled and responded, "I thought you could use some help." Kankuro's Black Ant shot out from behind the rock with them and sprang open, catching her four pursuers before they could turn to avoid it. Seeing the Crow impale the four from inside the Black Ant caused Maiko to let out a sigh of relief.

Kankuro's face then became more serious as he scolded her, "This is why the Kazekage sent me to assist you. But I should have known, your record stated that you weren't particularly bad with team-work."

Forgetting about keeping up her charade she argued back, "What my record from almost a decade ago says is none of your business! I don't even know why you were even allowed to read it."

"Look," he sighed, "We can argue about who can and can't look at your records later. But right now I suggest that we work together and come up with a plan of action for dealing with the last three rogues before they find us."

Maiko pushed off the rock to look over with her binoculars again. The last three rogues were up and alert, but had not yet seen them. She dropped back down and turned to the puppeteer again, "What's your plan?"

"To start, we need to take one of them alive," he began, "I suggest you get the attention of two of them so I can capture one in the black ant. I don't care what you do with the other two, just make sure you keep them away long enough for me to capture the last one."

A few minutes later the three rogues still alive were circling around the camp looking for the two Suna shinobi when Maiko called to them from atop one of their larger tents, "Hey, hey want to see a trick?"

The three shinobi looked at her, prepared to attack but curious enough to see what she would do. Maiko brought out three of her kunais and two senbon tipped with chakra that would help her put two of the rogues under a genjutsu. She threw the kunai one-by-one in the air, juggling them around and hiding the movements of the senbon between her fingers with a sleight of hand.

To the two rogues that she hit with senbon, after about three rotations, she had disappeared from the tent. To the rogue not under her genjutsu, she had simply slid down from the tent to him. He chased after Maiko as she headed over to the southern side of the camp where Kankuro had set up the Black Ant again. To the other two rogues who were under her genjutsu, they believe that the one standing beside them was Maiko and that Maiko was one of the rogues.

Maiko continued to dodge and take blows from the rogue chasing her as she slowly paced towards the rock where Kankuro hid, when the rogue kicked her into the rock. With the single rogue seperated far enough from everyone, Kankuro shot out the now emptied Black Ant at him, capturing him inside.

Kankuro slipped out from behind the rock, "Now all that's left are the two others."

Maiko began to stand, don't worry, "I've got them."

The two rogues trapped in Maiko's genjutsu continued to trade blows towards the north side of the encampment. Each sure that the other was Maiko, when Maiko who they believed to be their companion walked up to them and grabbed the shorter of the two to muffle and chained him up.

"We got her!" she called, still disguised, "What do you wanna do with her?"

The other rogue chuckled to himself, and answered, "I say we have some target practice, eh?" Maiko laughed with him and threw the chained up rogue against a wooden pole while he tried to shuffle out of the chains.

"I think you should have the honor since you were able to corner her," Maiko told the other rogue, handing him some of her kunai.

"I think so too," he agreed as he took her kunai and began to swing one on his index finger. While Maiko realized how sadistic allowing the rogue to kill his partner like that was, she realized that that was just how being a shinobi was. The rogue apparently was a good shot too, and slung two of the kunai into his partner's face. As the body slowly fell to the ground, Maiko put a hand on the last rogue's shoulder.

"Great shooting" she congratulated him, then quickly grabbed his last kunai and dug it through his neck. "Too bad you had to die."

About that time Kankuro paced over with the captive rogue still in the Black Ant, "I think that's a job well done." He looked up to sky and noticed that it was slowly getting lighter, closer to dawn. "Let's head back before it's light out."


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.**

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin**

**-6-**

Listen, once upon a time Maiko and Ai were best friends.

It was a time before their first B-rank mission when they were seventeen and sixteen respectively. It was back in that time that Ai still went by the name Aimi. It was during Aimi's sexual revolution of sorts. Maybe it was Maiko's too, it was around that time she had gotten her first boyfriend. While Aimi was known for chasing Isamu it didn't mean that the affair was at all one-sided. To the contrary, Isamu was the first one to give into her and Aimi was amazed at what a sexual relationship was like. And Aimi had to let Maiko know about it.

Maiko around that time still also worked as a tailor and her uncle Daisuke had just married Kame and started the Gentleman's Club of Suna. However, at that time their dancers donned simpler clothes at work and not the fancy costumes they did upon the time Ai and Maiko worked there. Kame had asked Maiko as a favor to create a costume for one of her dancers-the pink princess one.

"Maiko, have you and your boyfriend ever..." Aimi stopped for a moment to think about what she was asking. She sat on top of Maiko's bed at her parent's house while the brunette was cutting fabric.

"Have we what?" she asked, attempting to get the younger girl to continue.

"Have you ever slept together?" Aimi finally asked.

Maiko paused for a moment and simply stared, then grabbed the shiny pink fabric again and continued to cut, "Of course not."

"Well, me and Isamu did," Aimi quickly boasted, "We did a few times. And he brought a female friend once. It was so different I-" The brunette stopped again and glanced over at the blonde as she was taken aback by the memory. "I didn't know that it could feel that way..."

Maiko sighed, "I'm afraid to ask, but what are you talking about?"

"I," Aimi seemed a bit embarrassed to say it but went on, "I didn't know being with another girl could feel the way it did." Maiko wasn't phased at Aimi's revelation as the blonde assumed she would be. Out of the three members of her team, Maiko was the only one who wasn't oversexed. Rather, she was uninterested in it. Aimi however spoke of it as though the act had some sort of magical property.

It was then that the question was finally asked; "Maiko, would you try that with me sometime? Maybe with your boyfriend too?" Maiko's hands dropped like bricks down onto her lap and the needles she held in between her fingers stabbed into her thighs.

"No Aimi."

So Aimi proposed the idea to her boyfriend instead, of course, knowing that Maiko wouldn't be up for it, they went about it without her. When Isamu was blown to bits it seemed to Aimi that Maiko had allowed Isamu to die just because Aimi had slept with her boyfriend.

By dawn Maiko and Kankuro had reached the Kazekage's office with their captive, opening the Black Ant and handing the rogue over to two interrogators. Kankuro had offered to take Maiko home afterwards but the kunoichi assured him that she would be fine walking home herself. The puppeteer then promised to be at her house by six that evening to take her to dinner. That gave her a nice block of time to sleep until then.

And she spent the day in a deep slumber, wrapped into a distinctive memory from the war. Back when she was barely an adult Maiko recalled one of the first battles she had been in. The night before at the regiment's camp there had been sounds of clattering mugs, cheering, laughing, singing, and all sorts of merriment. The day that followed was filled with the sound of shrill cries and bodies as they dropped to the ground.

On the first day her regiment had been cut in half, on the second only seventeen of them remained. She had seen her regiment fighting through hordes of white Zetsu while comrades that she had know for years were being torn to shreds. She had seen herself being torn to shreds. She had witnessed enough deaths during the war to make for a thousand night terrors.

By nightfall Maiko still laid in bed, her pulse racing and her body sweating. Blankets and pillows had been kicked around as she fought an invisible enemy. Only a set of knocks on her door finally woke her.

"Hey Maiko, are you ready?" she could hear Kankuro call. Maiko quickly sprang from her bed in a frenzy, noticing the disorder of her room.

"Uh, just a minute!" she called back as she rushed to her closet and tossed a yukata decorated with roses onto her bed. She wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on her face from the night terrors and dressed.

Kankuro meanwhile continued to wait outside the door to her apartment, taping his foot and whistling to himself. Out of the corner of his eye he thought he could see a rat sneaking into the empty apartment next door. Finally, Maiko emerged from her apartment dressed and ready to go. The puppeteer thought to mention the rat but figured it would spoil the mood.

"I'm ready to go when you are," she announced, locking her arm with his. The two strolled together arms locked to the barbeque.

"I really love barbeques," Kankuro admitted after their second plate had been served, "I especially love the hamburger steak."

"I see." Maiko noticed as he had meticulously picked out every piece of hamburger steak that had been served to them. She leisurely took pieces of steak from the grill and ate, watching him.

Then came the question; "So what do you do?"

"Um," the kunoichi searched through her mental notes on how to answer, "I'm a tailor. What do you do?"

"I usually help my brother, the Kazekage out. But when I'm free-you could say I'm a puppet enthusiast," Kankuro spoke with a particular fondness, "I've got quite a collection, maybe I'll show it to you sometime."

"That would be nice." Maiko entertained the thought of going out with him again. She had to admit that she enjoyed his company, even though he had spent most of his time eating rather than talking. She liked that when he did speak, he never spoke of the Gentleman's Club or the dancers or just about anything that would point to her being the harlequin.

Maiko took another piece of meat from the grill, "I guess this makes up for wasting my dinner..."

"I would hope it did," he chuckled, as he reached in to grab another piece. Maiko couldn't help it but make a small smile herself, she hadn't been treated to a meal or even eaten with another person since she moved out of her family home. "I'll ask the server to bag some pieces for you to take home."

"That's...a very kind gesture," the kunoichi softly spoke. She was a bit overwhelmed by the kindness she was being shown. "Especially for someone you've known for only a few days."

"I did waste your dinner..."

When they finished, Kankuro walked her back to her apartment with her bag of leftovers. As Maiko reached for the knob of her door she wasn't sure what to say. She looked back at Kankuro who seemed to be waiting on her word. A few quiet words slipped from her mouth, "That...was nice."

"I thought so too," the puppeteer agreed in an equally quiet, soft tone. "If you'd ever want to meet up again..."

A small, warm smile etched itself onto her face as she answered, "I'll think about it..."

"Well, I'll be on my way then. Goodnight Maiko," he gave a short bow and raced down the staircase by her door. The kunoichi watched him go warmly, opening the door to her apartment. Putting away the bag of meat into one of her top cabinets, she decided that she might as well try to help around the Gentleman's Club for a bit to pick up some extra cash. Hopefully not break anything this time.

It wasn't until she arrived at the club that she considered that Kankuro could be there. The puppeteer sat up alone at the bar while she hid behind the curtains that hung by the entrance. On the stage she noticed the crow and wolf dancers were in the middle of a performance. Maiko recognized the scene as the war dance from one of the first plays Kame had written for the club.

Moving in sync with one another, the two foils performed as a clash of equality. From the stage Maiko looked back over to the bar where Kankuro still sat. She noticed Ai sauntering over to it dressed in her cherry blossom kimono. Maiko snuck through the curtains towards the bar so she could eavesdrop on what was being said.

"Daisuke, give the strongest tonic you've got," the blonde spoke with her husky voice. The bartender reached for a large bottle with a thick red liquid in it and poured her a glass. She wolfed down her glass, slamming it to the table as she finished, "Refill."

Daisuke filled the glass back up with the red liquid. As Ai began to drink, she noticed Kankuro at the other side of the bar, "I know you."

Kankuro turned his gaze to the blonde as she continued, "You're the Kazekage's brother aren't you."

"What about it?"

"I've seen you come into here quite a bit," she recalled, "But we've never spoken before." Ai leaned closer to him, "Now why would that be?"

"I just come here for the drinks," he spoke, turning back to the bar.

Ai slid down from her seat and stepped closer to him, scowling, "What a liar you are! I've seen you with the harlequin." She took another large gulp of her drink while Maiko, who still hid behind the curtains cringed.

"I'm not interested," Kankuro blantantly answered her. He was beginning to become irritated from Ai's questioning.

Ai chuckled and leaned her back against the bar, "What about the harlequin could interest you, eh? Oh big hearted ambassador, you couldn't have fallen for a mere stripper could you? Imagine the scandal!"

She laughed to herself and took another large gulp of her drink until it was empty and slammed it on the table again, "Imagine the look you'll make when you realize how fickle the maiko is. But Ai's here to comfort and Ai's here to entertain."

Ai pushed off of the bar and sauntered back over to her room on the other side of the club. Maiko's hands began to ball into fists, causing her nails to dig into the bandaging on her hands. She knew that causing a scene would make Kame, who had reason to be mad at her already, even more annoyed at her. So she snuck back through the curtains to the entrance and ran home.


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.**

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin**

**-7-**

The next morning Maiko awoke to a loud banging noise from outside. It wasn't her door per say, but something behind it. Unsure of what anyone would be doing that early in the morning, she decided to investigate. The kunoichi scratched her head as she looked out of the eye-hole to see only something large and wooden. Now that she was closer to it, she could also make out what sounded like a the voice of a woman grunting.

Maiko finally opened her door and was able to see that the large wooden thing she saw from the eye-hole was actually the side of a large wooden crate. She leaned to the side and was able to see a woman behind it, attempting to push it up the stairs. She also didn't recognize the woman from around Suna at all.

"Do you...need help with that?" she offered.

The brunette woman glanced over Maiko's way with her dull brown eyes, "No, I've got this, but thank you anyway." Maiko watched as the woman gave the crate another hard shove until it finally reached the top of the staircase. She walked to the side of it, giving Maiko a better look at her. The woman wore a short black cloak that covered her upper body with a forehead protector that she couldn't quite make out tied loosely around her neck. Her puffy navy pants were stained with blood and she wore sandals which were covered in sand.

"You're not from around here are you?" the Suna kunoichi asked.

The question gave the other woman a nice chuckle, "What gave it away?"

"The crate I suppose. You aren't trying to move around weapons are you?" Maiko began to question suspiciously.

"No," the brunette put up her hands in defense, "it's not what you think. Actually, it is a weapon, but it's not that kinda weapon..." The foreigner realized she was making a blunder and stopped herself, "It's a puppet."

"A puppet?" the Suna kunoichi remembered what Kankuro had mentioned the previous night about them, "I have a...friend...who collects puppets."

The foreigner patted the large crate carefully and spoke aloud more to herself than to Maiko, "Oh I would never give up this puppet for the world. You have to understand, this puppet is quite special to me. It's origins..."

"I'm sorry," the Suna kunoichi seemed a bit embarrassed with herself, "I forgot to ask what your name was..."

"Oh, I'm Kanshi," the foreigner explained, "And if I'm not mistaken, it appears that we are now next door neighbors."

"That explains the crates..." Maiko noted.

"The landlord wasn't too pleasant about the whole thing...until he saw the money I had of course. But, um, I suppose knowing your name might be beneficial...," Kanshi recalled.

The Suna kunoichi held her hand out, "My name is Maiko Rin, I've lived in Suna my entire life so if you need any help adjusting just let me know."

Kanshi shook her hand, "That would be nice, however I'd much rather stay out of the public eye-personal reasons. Perhaps I'll ask for a tour of the city during the night if you aren't busy sometime. Also, any information you have on the Puppet Brigade would be helpful too. I came to Suna hoping to find work with them."

"The Puppet Brigade," she thought about it, "I'd have to ask my friend, I'm sure he knows a lot about them." With that, Kanshi pulled another set of crates up the stairs and set them beside the larger one. Maiko noticed the blood on her pants again, "Are you injured?"

"Hmm?" Kanshi glanced down at her pants and noticed the blood, "Oh...um...that was from a bounty I took care of on the way here."

"Well, watch out for that slum lord downstairs and the other rats," Maiko warned before stepping back into her apartment. The thumping of crates resumed as she prepared the meat that she had taken home the previous night as a breakfast. Sitting alone and eating the rest of the meat, she couldn't help but meditate on the events of the previous night. While Kankuro seemed to have had no interest in Ai's advances, so had Maiko's second boyfriend. But that didn't stop him from eventually sleeping with her, so she assumed, it wouldn't matter in the end to Kankuro.

The kunoichi held her face in her hands and spoke aloud to herself, "I'm already feeling grief for something that hasn't even happened yet." She let herself cry softly into her hands. She wouldn't be able to face herself if she let herself be duped once again only to end up heartbroken because of Ai. The princess caused her more grief when she thought about her than when she was around her. It was kinda like remembering the war again and all of the friends she had lost during it. She'd lost a lot of friends because of Ai as well, Ai had decided to turn them all against her by telling them that she led Isamu to his death.

Most of those old friends ended up dying in the war anyway, so in the end, Maiko supposed it didn't really matter.

That afternoon she visited the Gentleman's Club early with her harlequin costume stuffed in a bag. She wanted to get there to help clean up and prepare for the night's acts. She also needed to speak to Kame about whether she needed any work done on her play costumes. Kame liked to hold a play once a month as it reminded her of the days she was able to catch a live troupe or movie.

Usually Maiko would help Kame with fixing up the costumes for such shows beforehand, especially since they usually performed the same plays over and over again in a rotation and the costumes would usually end up being roughed up a bit by the dancers. When Maiko arrived, however, Kame didn't need any work done on the costumes and allowed her to simply help around the bar-provided she didn't break anything again.

With that Maiko began to wash down the counter while Daisuke was out filling up their supply of drinks. As Maiko wiped, she noticed a bottle of sake sitting out under the bar. She picked it up, planning to put it back with the other bottles, but instead took one of the clean glasses from the cabinet and poured herself some to drink.

"One drink to loosen me up," she joked to herself as she downed the first glass, then refilled it. One glass turned into three, then six, then the entire bottle, then three bottles. By the time Daisuke had returned, Maiko was drunk and stumbling away from the bar and into the dressing room.

The harlequin looked at her plain reflection in the mirror, "Hey..yu...you look okie k!" Taking the powder, she began to lazily apply her makeup, which ended up barely covering her face. The purple diamonds she usually made under her eyes ended up looking more like squiggly octagons.

Several of the other dancers began to file in to the dressing room as well. The dancer who usually dressed in the serpentine costume sat down next to her and began to apply a blueish scale pattern to her face. She looked over at the harlequin, "Maiko, are you alright?"

"Mhm...juuuuust peachy," the harlequin yawned. She pulled her face mask out of her bag and slapped it on, sluggishly walking out into the middle of the club. Only a few costumers had actually arrived and they were all getting their drinks at the bar while Kame stood by the stage twiddling her thumbs.

When Kame saw the harlequin, she immediately walked over to her, "Maiko, Daisuke says we're missing a several bottles of sake, do you know where they could be?"

Maiko held her arms out, "Dunno." She continued to drag her feet as she walked around the club. It was then that the house lights were dimmed and the spotlights shined over to the center of the stage where the curtains were still drawn. All of the customers shifted over to the stage while Maiko headed back to the bar, swiping a drink that had been left on the counter.

She and the customers watched as the curtains rose and the pretty princess began to twirl around the stage in her exquisite costume. The same costume that Maiko had created years ago. She stopped in the center, looking out at the crowd of customers gathered around the stage. "Welcome all, welcome all~!" she sang out. Maiko began to slowly walk towards the stage, mesmerized with aggression and booze.

"Who here tonight has not heard of the Princess Ai?" she continued, dropping slowly while pressing her hands against her thighs. The crowd around her began to whistle and cheer, "Who would like to be alive with me tonight?" Maiko began to absentmindedly push customers out of the way as she continued to near the stage.

"Who has come to Ai for comfort?" there came more cheering as Maiko reached the front of the stage.

"Who has come to Ai for entertainment?" Ai dropped down to her knees, spreading both legs out. She then noticed, as everyone in the venue did, the harlequin start to climb onto the stage. "Well if it isn't the harlequin, what could the fool of hearts be doing here? Shouldn't you be cleaning up my room?"

"Pr-Princess Ai, busy collecting the money ffffffffrom the scum of Suna, are you?" Maiko slurred, "Or are you sssstill trying to ccconvince everyone how awful I am?"

The princess began to stand up, "Oh great, you're not only completely worthless but you're a complete drunk!"

"Atttt least I still have my ppppride!" she threw her arms up, spilling the contents of her glass all over the stage. The harlequin held the glass out as though it were just another of her kunai, actually, she might've been drunk enough to think is was one of them. The crowd began to roar in excitement, knowing that they would soon be seeing a fight. Hearing all the commotion, Kame began to rush towards the stage.

"You really wanna fight me harlequin?" Ai got into a defensive stance, waiting for Maiko to try a rush so she could counter it. Maiko did just that, she swung at the princess with her free hand. Ai grabbed her arm and tossed her into the crowd, but not before Maiko smashed the glass into the side of Ai's head. The crowd moved away and let Maiko fall into the floor while Ai pulled several shards of glass out of her hair and prepared to jump down and stab them into the harlequin.

But before she could land another hit on the drunk harlequin, a shout rang out through the club; "Stop this madness, NOW!" The burly House Mama stood at the end of the crowd, her face burning red and her eyes stern and enraged. The serpentine and crow dancers rushed onto stage and pulled Ai to her room while the Kame dragged Maiko, who had been knocked unconscious, to her office.

While the two combatants were pulled onto opposite sides of the club, Daisuke herded the customers out and closed down the club for the night. He sighed and walked over to the now clear stage with a dust pan and broom. Tiny shards of glass and drops of blood were scattered around the area. He did his best to clean up after the drunken brawl but he couldn't focus so much on it. His mind was too wrapped around what would happen to Maiko because of this, and he knew whatever it would be, it would be bad.


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.  
**

Does anyone still read this?

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin**

**-8-**

"I should fire you."

That was the first thing Maiko heard when she had finally come to. It was the middle of the night and the kunoichi was beginning to feel the effects of her hangover as she laid out on a divan in Kame's office. She clutched her aching head and attempted to look around.

"You made a public disgrace of yourself inside of my club."

A stream of bright lights hit Maiko from the other side of the room where Kame's desk usually sat. She could hear footsteps circling the divan that echoed in her head like heartbeats. A cup of water was thrust at her face, she accepted the glass and drank the cold water.

"You stole several bottles of sake from my bar and were intoxicated on your shift."

Maiko vaguely remembered drinking those three bottles of sake and forgetting to hide them afterwards. She massaged the sides of her aching head and looked away from the bright lights. The thought of all of the sake made her even thirstier than she was and she gulped down the rest of the water, setting the emptied glass on the floor beside her.

"One of my best dancers had to get seven stitches in her head and we've lost an entire night's worth of profits because of this scandal," Kame stepped firmly in front of the bright lights, looking down sternly at the harlequin. "All I want to know if why."

Maiko sat up on the divan, trying to recall the events that had transpired the previous night, "I admit, fighting Ai was a dumb move on my part, but she was being a whore like usual."

The burly older woman was getting even more frustrated with her niece, "That's your excuse for everything. 'I destroyed this because Ai was a whore. I broke that because Ai was a whore.' That excuse is so overused by you that I'm beginning to lose all of my trust in you."

The kunoichi's throat began to burn, she reached for the glass again, "Can I get a refill?"

"Will you answer my question again truthfully this time?" Kame asked, taking the glass.

Maiko scrunched around on the divan, "Yeah, yeah, whatever you want." Kame walked out of the light, which continued to beat down on the harlequin. She could hear the faint sound of more footsteps and the sound of water. A moment later Kame returned to her spot and handed the glass to Maiko who quickly took a sip of it.

"Tell me now Maiko," Kame repeated, "Why?"

"Yesterday..." Maiko stopped and considered her response. All she could say to Kame would be that she saw Ai flirting with Kankuro and got jealous. Would it suffice? Kame continued to stare down at her sternly, awaiting her answer. "I can't do this."

"What do you mean you can't do this? I gave you the water, you said you'd answer my question," the House Mama persisted.

"Kame, I can't...I can't tell you why," her voice cracked.

"Why can't you tell me?" the older woman continued to question.

"I have no real reason," Maiko finally broke, shouting, "Just set me loose. You don't need me."

"Maiko, I've supported you when you graduated from the Academy. I supported you when you decided to move out on your own. I gave you a job so you could pay your rent. And this is how you thank me?" Kame reprimanded her. Maiko's head hung low as she accepted the guilt.

"I should fire you, I really should," she continued, "But Maiko you're my family now. I want you to succeed, I really do, but the way you've been acting is unacceptable. So I'm going to give you a choice; if you ever want to work here again you're going to see a therapist daily for a month long period in which you will also be put on unpaid leave. If you don't do that, I don't want you to ever walk into my establishment again."

The kunoichi dropped her head into her hands and pulled on her hair, "I...I can't afford a therapist."

"If you keep your promise to see one for the next month, I will pay for it. But this is a promise you have to keep," Kame offered. Thus Maiko decided to take Kame's offer. She would take the therapy, she would take the unpaid leave, and she would come back within a month. Kame had chosen a therapist for her and scheduled her first appointment early the next morning.

When Maiko awoke on her first day of leave, she simply sat up and stared at her wall for a time. She had an hour to waste until she had to meet her new therapist, a rather young woman named Masuyo, outside the hospital. However, she rather wanted to avoid the public eye for a while since she was sure talk about the fight from the previous night had made it's way around the village. Maiko would be rather embarrassed if it reached Kankuro's ears even if he didn't know that she was the harlequin.

As she exited her apartment, she noticed her next door neighbor Kanshi standing outside her apartment, leaning in the door frame. The dull eyed brunette called to her, "Hey if you aren't busy, would you come in here for a moment?"

Maiko wasn't sure what she could want but followed the foreigner into her apartment. It was rather nicely furnished for the slum of an apartment it was. Kanshi had seemed to have packed everything, a divan, decorations, lanterns, clean curtains and table cloths. One piece that caught her eye was a large glass case that stood between her two windows in the first room. Inside it was what looked like a doll of a girl who appeared almost alive, she assumed that that was the puppet Kanshi had mentioned the previous morning.

"Before I moved here I used to grow herbs and I experimented with different ones a bit," Kanshi began to explain as she picked up a steaming mug and offered it to her, "And well...I wanted to know if you'd try some of my herbal tea."

"Um, thank you," Maiko was delightfully surprised by the gift and took it from Kanshi's hands, taking a sip of it. Kanshi seemed to be watching her expectantly while she tasted it as though the girl were her test subject. The herbal tea itself was rather bitter but woke Maiko's mind up, "Could I have some of this again sometime?"

"Oh, sure, I just planted all of the ingredients I need for it in my planters yesterday," a proud smile spread across her face, "My father used to ask me to make it every morning for him back at home."

Maiko recalled that she hadn't seen her parents since she had moved out. If they were still in town she would have to pay them a visit after she had finished her session with the therapist. Kanshi let her take the mug of herbal tea with her as she walked to the hospital. On the way there she recognized a lot of faces of customers from the Gentleman's Club. She wondered if they recognized her back as she stared at them.

"Hey Maiko, I was just about to stop by your apartment," called one of those familiar faces. Maiko turned to see Kankuro running over to her. He was the last person that Maiko wanted to see that morning.

"I can't..." she mumbled as he reached her.

"I wanted to know if you'd want to have dinner together again," from his facial expressions he seemed excited to see her while she just had a disappointed frown. When she didn't answer he studied her expression and asked, "Is everything alright?"

"I...I don't have any food."

"That's alright, I can bring some over," he suggested but her frown didn't change. "Is that alright with you?"

"I...I guess," she flatly answered, "I guess at six? I have to go now though..."

He didn't question it further, "I'll see you at six." He then took off the opposite way. The hospital wasn't much further away and the burgundy haired woman she assumed was Masuyo stood outside right by the doors with a strange smile sprawled upon her face.

The first thing Masuyo said to Maiko was, "What do you think of the weather today?" From the chair that Maiko sat on in one of the spare rooms of the hospital it seemed to be the strangest question she'd been ever asked.

"I guess it's nice out?" she guessed, unsure of the intention of the question.

"I'm asking you because I want your opinion," Masuyo explained, "I'm not using your view of the weather as a metaphorical depiction of your psychological state."

Maiko felt a bit more at ease knowing that she was simply being asked for opinion, "There hasn't been any sandstorms for a week or so, it's nice."

"It is quite nice isn't it?" she agreed. The therapist then pulled out a set of notes, "Now for the issue at hand; your employer tells me that you've been having bouts of irrational rage..."

Maiko was sure the next question was something like;_ tell me about your anger_ or _explain why you're angry_. But instead it was; "Tell me, did you fight in the war?"

"I..." the slight mention of it brought back the images, the sounds, the feelings, "I did."

Masuyo made a quick note on her paper, "I've had a number of younger shinobi patients who fought in the war come to me with problems adjusting back into daily life because of what they experienced." Maiko could agree with this, she hadn't come back from the war the same herself.

Masuyo then brought up another point; "According to your report, you were also seen once by another therapist several years back because of an incident involving the death of one of your friends. Can you tell me about that?"

Internally, Maiko felt as though she were reliving the mission over again.

At a time when she was not much younger, Isamu and her were trapped in a room underground that had been rigged with explosive tags by the bounty they had been sent to apprehend. The floor above them had been set to collapse the minute it was touched, causing the two shinobi to tumble down into the room they now were in with numerous injuries. To make matters worse, they were trapped on opposite sides of the room which had explosive tags littering the walls and floor of as well as several hanging ones.

On a single platform in the middle of the room stood a lever which, according to the tattoo covered rogue who stood next to it, would open the entrance out of the room up again. He also told them about the numerous traps he had set up and gauged their stress with each mention. The two were more astonished with the fact that this shinobi had managed to rig an entire cave not far from the city to explode than they were when he told them that he had slipped an explosive tag on the two of them as they had fallen.

At that point, it would seem that the logical move would be to get Ai, who had not fallen down with them, to jump down into the room where the switch was, that is, if she hadn't been already incapacitated by the Cloth Binding Technique.

"I'd watch where you step," the bounty cackled. Isamu wanted to test the traps by setting off some of the explosive tags in order to create a path to the switch. Maiko on the other hand thought that the positions of the tags were hidden or moved by a genjutsu. The male shinobi decided to shoot several single senbon across the room, hitting random tags on the walls. However, only two of the tags he did hit went off, further proving Maiko's hypothesis.

"These bomb tags aren't all real," Isamu called over to Maiko from the other end of the room. Isamu continued to test other tags that were at a far enough distance that neither of the two would be blown to bits, then started to shoot the tags that blocked his way to the lever. He inched his way through while the bounty simply laughed at them. At the same time, Maiko was slowly trying to repel the genjutsu when she discovered a much more disturbing view of the battlefield. There were actually very few real explosive tags in the room, however the positions of them were surrounding the lever, on the lever, and on the room's three occupant's respectively.

The kunoichi noticed Isamu inching slowly towards a hidden explosive tag, "Isamu stop, it's a genjutsu!" Maiko rushed through a set of fake tags on her side and reached Isamu. The bounty jumped over the circle of tags he had set up to protect the lever and over to Isamu. Not realizing that the bounty had tagged himself-

Maiko's face dropped into her hands again as the anguish raced through her, "I...I can't."

Her therapist looked sympathetically at her, "I understand." She stowed her notes into a blank file, "I'd like to meet here tomorrow around the same time."


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.**

I want to thank everyone who's kept with me, I'm sorry for taking so long to update and taking all these weird turns with it...

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin**

**-9-**

Maiko had moved out of her parent's home right after she came home from the war. It wasn't because there had been any sort of big family feud, her family just wasn't there. She found out from Daisuke that her parents had fled while she was gone and would be back soon. She waited for them in their family home and waited for them but they never appeared. After several long weeks alone, she assumed that they would never come back and simply collected her things and found the cheapest housing she could find on the other side of town.

A year passed and not a single letter had arrived from them. Then several months prior to working at the Gentleman's Club, Maiko received word that her parents had been traveling around the countries and would be back home soon. When she returned to the family home after her first session with Masuyo she found only a pile of letters lying on the floor behind the door. Some were from family friends, some were debts that had to be paid, and one at the bottom of the pile was a letter address to her from her parents.

It read; _Maiko, _

_Please watch the house while we are gone. Your uncle mentioned you had moved out and gotten a job but didn't give many details. We will be home soon. _

_Love Mom_

That was it. Once again, her parents were gone with no mention of where they were or when they would return. Maiko pocketed the letter and cleaned up the stack, setting it in an organized pile inside of a desk in her parent's room. Most of the furniture inside was dusty and the ceilings were filled with cobwebs. It could have passed for a haunted house the way things appeared to be just left around as though the owner had simply left one day in the middle of something and forgotten about it.

Maiko relaxed around the house for several hours just to soak up the nostalgic feeling of home before leaving again to return Kanshi's mug and prepare for dinner with Kankuro. On the way she passed the entrance of the Gentleman's Club. The doors were locked, but even so, it felt so much more unwelcoming to her as it had ever felt. She thought to sneak inside just to make sure it was the same place it had always been but found that it went against her better judgment and continued her way home.

When Maiko returned the mug Kanshi was nice enough to give her a can filled with her herbal tea so that she could heat it up and drink it whenever she wanted. She wondered if Kankuro might want to try some of it during dinner and kept it out on her counter just in case. The rest of her time until six consisted of packing away her harlequin costume and everything related to the Gentleman's Club in a box at the bottom of her closet. She brought some of her favorite yukata robes to the front to cover it.

When Kankuro arrived, like he always did, it was with several knocks on the door. Maiko opened it to see him carrying two bags of cooked food in containers, "That's a lot of food for two people to eat..."

Kankuro set the bags on top of her table and started to unpack them while Maiko grabbed some plates and silverware from her cabinets, "I figured if we didn't finish it, we'd save it for the next time I come over." The pack contained two bowls of miso soup, a row of rice balls, sashimi, and dango.

"Kankuro..." the kunoichi paused.

He looked over to her, "Huh?"

"Why are you so nice to me?" she finally asked, "We barely know each other and you're so nice to me."

He sat down at the short table, "Is being friendly a crime?"

Maiko set the two of them their plates and silverware, "Not friendly but...a bit too friendly..."

"Well," he said as he began to slurp his soup, "Do you like that?"

She sat down across from him, pondering his question, "I don't know..."

Kankuro started on his first rice ball, "Well if it helps, I enjoy your company."

Maiko pulled over her soup and took a small spoonful of it. She did enjoy his company. Although most of the time they spent time together it was while eating. She'd have to remember to ask him if he'd want to meet up somewhere sometime and do something that didn't involve eating for once though.

"Likewise."

The two continued to eat and conversed. By the time they had called it a night only one rice ball remained. As Kankuro was heading out he stopped and turned, holding onto the door frame.

"By the way, if you aren't busy tomorrow night I was wondering if you'd want to come over for dinner at my place. My siblings and I don't get to eat together that often but when we do its kind of special."

"Um," this surprised Maiko. A formal dinner with Kankuro's family already? She assumed that wouldn't be until at least the tenth dinner together, "I guess I've always wondered what the Kazekage residence looked like inside..."

"So do you accept?" he asked, seeming as though he were anxious to hear her response.

"If I'm welcome," she replied, "Then I'll be there."

"Hahaha, that's awesome," he gave her a big toothy smile, "Be there at around six alright?"

"Yep, bye bye Kankuro, see you at dinner!" she called as he rounded the stairs, gleefully. That would be something to tell Masuyo the following day all right.

Early next morning her uncle, Daisuke visited. Since the bar wasn't open in the morning he had a lot of free time to spend, plus he hadn't seen Maiko since the drunken brawl so he wanted to know how she had been.

He sat at the side of her bed while she laid under her covers, "How've you been kiddo? The bar's feels kind of empty these days"

"I guess I'm ok," she murmured, rubbing her head, "My head hurts a bit but I guess I'm fine."

Daisuke held a package under his arm that was tied with a thick red ribbon, he sat it by Maiko's side, "Kame and I made you a little care package. I hope you like it."

Maiko sat up and put the package on her lap, "Thank you Uncle!" She gently pulled the ribbons loose and opened the lid of it. Inside was a bottle of Daisuke's homemade ale, some ryo, and a small music box. The kunoichi opened the music box and a harlequin dancer spun around to a song that she remembered hearing play at the club before.

She then grabbed the home made ale and joked, "I guess I know what I'll be drinking for breakfast."

Daisuke snatched the ale from her, "I don't want you to spend your suspension drinking yourself to sleep, Maiko, I'm serious."

"Don't worry Daisuke, I haven't been drinking," she reassured him, "I had dinner with Kankuro again yesterday and I was too full from all of the food he brought over." She limply pointed to her bedroom door that led to her kitchenette, "There's a rice ball left over if you want it."

"You've been having dinner with the Kazekage's brother? You never told me about that," he smirked, "Looks like my little Maiko's got herself a boyfriend."

"No," she dryly spoke as she laid back down.

"Hmm," he sighed, sitting the package on floor by Maiko's nightstand, "Well, do you have any plans for the next twenty eight days-other than meeting with your therapist I mean?"

She tossed onto her back, "Kankuro's invited me to dinner with his siblings today."

"Oh," Daisuke smirked again, "I find this development to be most...interesting."

"We're not dating..."

"Be on your best behavior, no drunken brawls, make a good impression," he couched her, "This is the Kazekage's family we're talking about, first impressions are extremely important."

"I don't see any reason that I would start a drunken brawl with one of Kankuro's siblings, they would kill me."

"That they could," he agreed, "Don't forget to wear something nice."

"I won't," she sat back up, "Daisuke, what was your first impression of Kame?"

"I thought you weren't dating?" he answered smugly.

"I'm not implying anything that," she scratched the back of her head, "Although I'm not sure which impression with Kankuro was my first. The one in which I failed to perform a lap dance or the one where I told him that I wasn't a shinobi? I'd say they're both pretty bad."

"But it's the one where you took the mission anyway that made him want to have dinner with you, right?"

"No, I think it was the one where he asked for food then wasted it because it was spinach," she laughed, "That was pretty funny." She had to admit, she had come pretty far from the day when she refused to team up with him on that mission to now be invited to dine with his family.

"Well, enough about my impressions," she asked again, "What about your first impression on Kame?"

"I thought she was pretty greed. Your mother did too," Daisuke recalled, "And it turns out, she is pretty greedy, but tucked away behind all of that greed is a heart of gold that she keeps in reserve for only those she really cares for." The two had a nice laugh for a moment.

"Speaking of Mom, how are she and Dad?" Maiko thought as she recalled the letter she had found at her parent's house the previous day.

Daisuke held his arms out on his thighs, "Last I heard the two were traveling around for a bit and that they would be back in Suna by the end of the year."

"I miss them Daisuke."

"I miss them too."


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.**

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin**

**-10-**

Masuyo began the second session of therapy with the same phrase she had used last time; "What do you think of the weather today?" And the weather that day happened to be quite stormy so Maiko answered like anyone else in her situation would.

"It's reminiscent of my love life."

"Your love life?" This revelation gave the burgundy haired woman a small grin, "I was going to mention how great of a day it is to fly a kite, but I guess I know what today's topic will be!"

Maiko groaned, with the dinner at the Kazekage's later in the day she didn't need to be reminded of all of her past romantic mistakes. She was nervous already and she was miles from their house.

"I didn't mean..." she sighed, it would be a long session.

"How about I go first?" Masuyo offered, "I'm sure my track record makes yours look like a cake walk."

"I would enjoy a cake walk..."

The older woman thought for a moment, "I've probably chased away at least five boyfriends with my, as they dubbed it, _psychological bullshit_."

"I've only had two boyfriends, and they both cheated on me," the brunette gave out a nervous laugh.

"I've had a few cheaters too," Masuyo noted, "I think everyone experiences that at least once."

"Same woman?"

"Now that's surprising," Masuyo brought out her notes, "Please do elaborate on this mystery woman."

"She's not really a mystery woman," she admitted, "She's the one I got into that fight with that made me end up here."

"Ah," the therapist knew exactly who now, "Your employer mentioned this."

"The root of my problem."

Masuyo rolled her pen between her hands, "Not actually the root of your problem actually, simply another symptom. However, if you and this woman weren't at odds with one another, it would surely help the issue."

Maiko scowled at the idea of making amends with Ai.

"I suppose we'll have to save that for another time."

As the day went on, the weather itself became even harsher out, violently throwing around sand by the afternoon. Maiko rushed back to her apartment in the sandstorm and knocked on her neighbor's door again. A muffled reply came from inside and the brunette opened the door to see the dull brown eyed woman sitting on her sofa brushing the short orange hair of her puppet.

"I wasn't expected a visit today," Kanshi exclaimed, setting the puppet down, "I um...it's not creepy, I like to keep things tidy."

Maiko didn't question her actions any further and closed the door behind her, continuing inside, "I need some last minute advice."

"Me, advice? I'm surely one of the last people to go to for advice...um," the dull eyed woman noticed the urgency in Maiko's stare.

"I need advice from a puppeteer," the harlequin girl begged. She wanted to make a great impression at dinner and figured that asking someone who had some sort of insider know-how on puppeteers would help.

"I'm…um...how do I put this," she rubbed her shoulder, a bit embarrassed, and explained, "I'm not really a puppet master, I mean, I know the puppet technique and I guess I'm pretty proficient with the puppet I have but..."

Maiko cut her off, "I need advice about the actual people, not the technique. Like, what do puppet masters like? What kind of gifts would they want?"

"Well…food is always a welcome gift," her stomach groaned as Kanshi set her puppet back in its glass case between her windows and cleared a spot for her neighbor on the couch, "But sit down, I think I might be able to help you." The harlequin girl took a quick seat while Kanshi paced back and forth across the room in thought.

She stopped and confidently exclaimed; "Maybe I'm not the most qualified person to give you advice, but I'll damn well try! What do you need, a gift idea for your friend?"

"Gift and compliment ideas would help," Maiko piped from her seat.

"Hmm," the dull eyed woman thought while she paced, "Well, I suppose the gift would depend on the person. You surely wouldn't hand a child puppeteer a corpse or a psychotic puppeteer a bouquet of roses."

"Um, I don't think my friend falls under either of those categories," the harlequin was beginning to wonder the validity of this advice herself.

"I wasn't assuming that," Kanshi continued, "It's just the fact of the matter. Now I'm not going to assume anything-for I wouldn't want to make an ass of myself or you-but I think compliments would work best."

"And how would I go about complimenting a puppeteer in the first place?"

"Well, you just tell them how great they are!" she laughed, "Considering that puppeteers don't usually get that much attention because they're long-distance fighters, it's best to give them a bit of an ego boost."

"An ego boost?" Maiko considered what her neighbor had just told her, "I've never really thought about that before." Before Kanshi could continue, she stood from her spot on the couch, "Thank you for the advice, I'll be going!"

The quick exit surprised Kanshi who called after her; "Um…well don't forget about that ego-boosting!"

For the rest of the afternoon Maiko cleaned herself up and prepared for the dinner. She was conflicted as to whether she was dressing too formal or not. Eventually she decided on wearing her military garb atop a short kimono. If there was anywhere she thought she should proudly display her Sunagakure headband, it would be the Kazekage's residence.

When she arrived, Kankuro met her at the door as expected. He seemed rather excited to see that she had kept her word and shown up. He led her to the entrance of the dining room where his siblings were waiting.

"I know you met Gaara before," he motioned to the red-headed Kazekage who stood on the left with his arms folded and a neutral expression on his face, then to the tall blonde woman who smirked, "But this is my older sister, Temari."

Maiko froze in place with a wide-eyed stare; she'd remembered seeing that woman at the bar of the Gentleman's Club when the place had first opened. The last thing she needed was this woman to recognize her and bring up her rather embarrassing employment. Her throat dried as she stood, hoping that she wouldn't need to speak.

"So this is your girlfriend, Kankuro?" Temari joked, breaking the silence, "She doesn't talk much."

Maiko pulled at her collar and held her hand up to give a small introductory gesture but instead limply waved, "Hi."

"This is Maiko," Kankuro sighed, "I eat at her place a lot."

"Well…" his older sister noted the nervousness of the girl, "Dinner will begin in a half hour so you've got time to poke around for a bit." With that she left with Gaara.

When the two were no longer in sigh, Maiko mechanically turned to Kankuro, "I can't do this, I can't do this, I can't…"

Kankuro held onto her shoulders and attempted to calm her down, "Don't let my siblings scare you."

"It's not that," she pursed her lips, she really had no way of explaining it all to Kankuro and this simply made things even worse.

"How about I show you my puppet collection? I'm sure that'll take your mind off of the whole dinner thing, ok?" he tried to persuade her while he dragged her to his workshop.

Maiko wasn't sure seeing his puppet collection would help. The idea of being alone with him in a room full of refurbished corpses wasn't the most endearing option she'd been given. Especially with the choice of conversation that he had brought up when they were inside.

"This is the Scorpion puppet I used back when I was the Captain of the Surprise Attack Division during the war," he gleefully explained as he held the puppet of a lifeless red-head to her, "It was once the body used by Sasori of the Red Sands, who defected from Suna to join Akatsuki."

"Um...how nice?" she offered, leaning on the wall with the face of the ex-Suna shinobi's puppet corpse not far from her own. Kankuro pulled the Scorpion puppet back and then pulled out two other puppets, a man who looked a lot like the Scorpion and a long haired brunette woman.

"And these are the Mother and Father puppets that Sasori entrusted me to pass onto future generations of puppet masters after his soul departed during the war," he held the two puppets out to Maiko who was only becoming more unnerved with the talk of war. Kankuro pulled them back and returned to his shelves to with the two puppets.

"My neighbor is a puppeteer..." she mentioned in a low whisper as she pushed off of the wall and stepped over towards Kankuro.

"Oh really?" he called out to her.

"Yeah, she mentioned wanting to join the Puppet Brigade if it was still around." Kankuro returned from his puppets and walked back over to Maiko, stopping a foot from her.

"Puppet Brigade hasn't been around since the previous Shinobi World War," he was taken aback by the statement, "Your neighbor isn't a Suna kunoichi is she?"

"Um, I don't really know," Maiko admitted. She hadn't seen any evidence as to where Kanshi was from, but it surely wasn't Suna.

Kankuro quickly changed the subject back to the war much to Maiko's discomfort; "So, how was your experience during the war?"

"All I remember are hordes of White Zetsus..."

Before she could continue, a shout rang out from outside of their door from whom they assumed was Temari; "Dinner time!"

"Well, time to eat," Kankuro rubbed the back of his neck, "Enjoy yourself and don't let my siblings make you nervous, ok?"

"I'll try."

Surprisingly, the dining room of the Kazekage's residence was actually quite quaint. It was a simple, long wooden table draped with a table cloth and set with eating utensils. Nothing was overly exquisite; it felt like eating at any common citizen's house, it was comforting in its own way. Maiko only had to make sure that she made a good impression on Kankuro's two siblings and didn't mention the Gentleman's Club at all.

During dinner Maiko recalled some of the things Masuyo had told her during her session after mentioning the invitation to dinner. One of those was of course;

_"Remember to close your mouth while you chew. No one wants to see your saliva mixed with half-eaten meat and vegetables." In actuality, there weren't that many vegetables, probably due to the fact that Kankuro and Gaara preferred barbeque foods over them._

_Masuyo also made sure to mention; "Honesty is the best policy! You wouldn't lie to your own Kazekage would you?"_

Temari guided the chatter that was to be had during the dinner and eventually turned to the nervous harlequin girl, "So, Maiko, what do you do for a living?" Maiko dropped her chopsticks, it seemed a bit early for such a question to come up but it had, she went through her mental notes for a clue as to what she might answer. Kankuro, who sat next to her, was worried that she would freeze up again like she had earlier and was prepared to answer for her if she couldn't.

"Kunoichi..." Maiko quietly replied.

"Hmm, what was that?" the blonde called to her from the other side of the table.

"I'm a kunoichi," she repeated a bit louder.

"Ah, a kunoichi."

_Another of Masuyo's notes came to her; "However, you should always compliment the chef, even if whatever you ate gave you food poisoning-unless it was actually poisoned per say."_

"This is...really delicious," Maiko offered, picking her chopsticks back up and attempting to execute a joyful grin. Instead, a nervous laugh erupted from her.

"Thanks," the blonde answered, she seemed to take it as a general compliment, which was good. It also made Maiko feel a lot less tense, _what else had Masuyo said?_

_"If you're wondering how you're doing, don't try to read their faces. Logically speaking, these are feared shinobi who dominate battlefields, but the last thing they'll forget is how to make a poker face."_

Looking from Temari to Gaara, she noticed that the two did seem to have neutral expressions, something to note. Maiko kept focused as Temari began to ask Gaara about how his day had been. The only person who didn't have his guard up was Kankuro, who freely laughed and grinned at how his little brother had accidentally stubbed his foot on his desk.

Perhaps it was all going pretty well.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc.**

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin**

**-11-**

The remainder of dinner went smoothly and once it was finished, Kankuro walked Maiko, arm in arm, back to her apartment. While it would seem that the walk home was romantic and peaceful, Maiko's mind was conflicted. She enjoyed being with Kankuro, she truly did, but she was worried that he would end up like her two previous significant others. And she wasn't sure if she should to risk it with Kankuro, he felt special to her. When they arrived at her door, Kankuro noticed the worry in her face.

"Do you think that my family didn't approve of you?" he asked, leaning against her door-frame.

Maiko shook her head, "It's not that..."

"Well, they liked you, if it makes you feel any better," he reassured her.

"Kankuro, are we...?" Maiko began but stopped herself. She stopped to think about what she was proposing, "Give me a minute..." She opened her door and rushed into the adjacent room to her nightstand where the package Daisuke had given her earlier sat. Kankuro stepped inside, confused as to what Maiko was trying to do. She resurfaced with the bottle of homemade ale.

"I'm sorry, I need a drink first for courage," she explained with a nervous laugh as she quickly popped open the bottle and started to gulp down the brown liquid. Kankuro smirked as he leaned against her kitchenette and watched her.

"Whatever you say." When the bottle was half filled, Maiko took it from her lips and sat it on her low table, straightening herself up, and clasping her hands together.

"Kankuro, would you date me? I'm serious," she asked with a merry smile plastered on her glazed face, "I mean, you do seem to find yourself inside quite well..."

He gave an amused laugh as she corrected herself; "My apartment, I mean inside my apartment. I might as well give you the key to it..."

"Sure Maiko, I'll date you," he gave a warm smile as the two of them held each other, "But I was planning on asking you that today anyway."

"Really? I didn't have to bother wasting half a bottle of ale?" she laughed, "No, it's worth it."

Kankuro pulled her chin up with his index finger and gave her a gentle kiss, "Goodnight Maiko, I'll stop by tomorrow. Make sure to get your beauty sleep for me, ok?" He let her go and left, leaving a warm, filling, feeling that spread throughout Maiko's body.

And it wasn't all because of the alcohol.

The following afternoon, Kankuro visited Maiko as he said he would. She had all of her sewing supplies lying about her low table and was busy at work on something. Kankuro sat down on his knees next to her and examined the sketches and designs that she had drawn.

"Hmm...whatcha making?" he asked as he leaned on her shoulder.

"I'm attempting to design a new outfit to use during battles. I need something that's as practical as it is stylish," she explained, turning to him, "But on another note, it's lovely to see you today!"

"As are you," he cooed, kissing her on the forehead. He sat down cross-legged next to her, "Y'know, you should take jobs with the Kazekage more often, you did a great job last time. Well, minus the whole running off by yourself-thing."

"I don't know," she sighed as she set her pencil down, "I feel as though I'm still not strong enough to take jobs out on my own. Everything with the war kind of shook me up."

"War isn't child's play, especially that one," he admitted in a hushed tone as he thought back to all of the fighting that he and his team had endured during it.

Maiko leaned onto his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him, "Maybe that's it...maybe the war just made me too afraid to be a shinobi anymore." She made sure to remember that to mention to Masuyo during therapy later that day.

"That's the funny thing about fears," Masuyo told her, "They keep us back from doing great things. And Maiko, that's a problem. And it's a problem I can help you with."

Across from her therapist, Maiko slumped into her chair and sighed, "And how do I overcome being a shinobi?"

"By being one of course!" the burgundy woman beamed with a fresh, new idea in mind, "We're going to start doing our therapy sessions differently. I want you to meet me at the Training grounds by the Academy tomorrow afternoon so we can train together."

"I'm sorry, but how will training with you help me overcome my fear of being a shinobi?" she asked, not amused.

"For one," Masuyo twirled her pen around, "It will give you a way to vent out all of your aggression."

"And?"

"Trust me on this one Maiko, I think you'll enjoy it," she reassured her.

Maiko just sighed and continued to slump down in her chair, "I guess..."

When Maiko arrived at the training grounds the next afternoon, she found that Masuyo had swapped her usual doctor garb for standard shinobi wear and was enthusiastically awaiting her in the center of the area. Maiko on the other hand was lazily dressed in a mixture of her pajamas and shinobi garb.

"Well c'mon Maiko," Masuyo motioned for her to come to the center of the area where she stood, "I want you to practice some kicks for me while we talk."

"I'm really weak," she protested as she walked over to her therapist.

"That isn't the point, what do you think training does?" the burgundy haired woman pushed a foot back and got into a fighting pose, "Now, tell me about your friends." Maiko gave her a weak kick, which Masuyo grabbed and used to throw her to the ground. It seemed her therapist wasn't kidding about training.

"I have very few friends," the harlequin started, giving a stronger kick.

Masuyo blocked the kick with one hand and replied; "Why's that?"

Another kick, this time a bit stronger, "Because I let one die."

Masuyo deflected it again, "If that's the case, were they ever truly your friends to begin with?"

Maiko stepped back and did a front flip, catapulting herself towards her therapist, "It doesn't matter, the majority of them died in the war."

Masuyo grabbed onto her feet and grounded her again, "What about Ai?"

A much more forceful kick this time, Masuyo assumed because of the subject; "She's a whore."

"Maybe your perception of Ai is wrong," the burgundy woman explained while deflecting a series of quicker kicks, "Maybe you and Ai are actually similar people."

Maiko slid back, "That's impossible."

Another barrage of kicks which Masuyo deflected; "What I mean is, people have different methods of reaching their happiness. What if the conflict you two face is as simple as the two of your conflicting methods?"

"But why would she turn my friends against me?" Maiko began to quicken her pace with both legs.

With the increased speed, Masuyo began to simply dodge instead of attempting to deflect hits; "Did Ai have any friends before?"

"Y'know what...I don't really know," the harlequin thought aloud as she took a break, "She used to always want to hang out with me a lot."

"Maybe Ai did that in order to fill the void that was left after the end of your friendship," Masuyo offered, also stopping to catch her breath. Between pants she continued; "You shouldn't allow a broken friendship to cause you such grief, what happened, happened."

Maiko had never really considered it all before, finally realizing that she was also to blame and admitted; "I've been a hypocrite haven't I..."

At the sound her therapist gave a grin, "Now we're moving in the right direction!"

Maiko and Masuyo continued to have training sessions like that for the next week. While her speed didn't really improve much, she was having mental breakthroughs with the talks that they carried during sessions. She also found that she had lost a few of the pounds that she previously had gained since being put off from work.

Meanwhile, Maiko and Kankuro continued to see one another. Specifically, after her eleventh day of therapy, the two of them went out together on a date, enjoying a nice, clear Suna night. They strolled along the many streets arm in arm and gazed at the stars. Oh how romantic it was until...well...until Kankuro made a suggestion.

"I know this nice bar not far from here if you'd like to get a drink, on me of course, the place gives me nice fat discount."

Maiko stopped in her tracks. She knew exactly which _nice bar_ he was talking about. This was the same _nice bar_ that she had been banned from for a month with nineteen more days left. The same _nice bar_ that she was previously employed at. And the same _nice bar_ that she had hoped and prayed that Kankuro would never bring up to her-ever.

"What do you say?" he asked, obviously unaware of the irony.

"Kankuro..." she was unsure of what to say and how to put it, "I can't."

"What do you mean you can't? Are you quitting drinking or something?"

"I..."

Just as Maiko was about to tell Kankuro an elaborate lie as to why she was against drinking and just couldn't handle walking into a bar, she remembered what Masuyo had told her about lying. Actually, it was a mixture of Masuyo's words and her guilty conscience; _Honesty is the best policy! You wouldn't lie to your own Kazekage would you? Would you Maiko? Would you lie to the man you've just started dating? Bringing lies into your relationship already?_

As though her morally clean conscience that sat on her shoulder was controlling her lips, she spoke; "I know which bar you're talking about. I've been banned from it for a while and am forced to go to therapy." _What a bombshell!_

Kankuro however, was caught off guard by the confession, but nonetheless, concerned for her, "Maiko, if you ever have any problems or need someone to talk to, I'll always be there for you."

Like the night that she first asked him if he would date her, the warm, filling feeling returned. Like a match warming her cold, cold heart, she felt for once that she had someone there for her. And she was so happy.

"Kankuro, I..." the warmest smile she had ever given him spread across her face as she grasped his warm hands, "I...I'm so thankful to have you. I want you to know that."

"I'm thankful to have you too," his smile radiated back at hers like a warm sun, "And I'm fine with just walking with you...or y'know, maybe some barbeque."

"Barbeque it is!" she laughed as he led her arm in arm to his favorite barbeque in all of Suna.


	12. Chapter 12

**_Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Naruto or any of its trademarks, characters, places, etc._**

_At last, the return of my favorite ten-letter verb. Also, if you read anything else of mine, you should recognize the courier in their post-story state._

* * *

**My Favorite Harlequin**

**-12-**

The morning of the twelfth day, Maiko awoke to a knock on her door. She assumed that it was Daisuke, or Kankuro, or maybe Kanshi, but instead a short blue haired kunoichi stood at her door with the strangest mechanical hazel eyes she had ever seen. She recognized the symbol on her forehead protector to be that of Kusagakure's symbol. However, she didn't know why someone from Kusa would be at her door so early in the morning.

"'You Maiko Rin?" the Kusa kunoichi asked.

"Um, yes, that would be me," she replied, still nonplussed.

The Kusa kunoichi pulled a letter out of her side-bag and dryly told Maiko as though she had had to repeat it a hundred times, "I'm Hitomi Maeda, courier for the daimyo of Kusagakure and this letter is for you. Someone in Kusa paid a lot of money to the daimyo to have this delivered quickly and safely."

Maiko accepted the letter from the courier and looked it over. She wasn't sure that she knew anyone in Kusagakure that would want to urgently send her a letter.

"If that's all, I'll be going," the mechanical eyed courier added, then pushed off the top of the stairs and jumped down, out of sight.

Maiko retreated inside with her letter and opened it to find, to her surprise and excitement, that it was another letter from her parents;

_Maiko,_

_Sorry we have not written much. Daisuke tells us you are well? Right now we are in Kusagakure, it's quite nice, maybe one day we could take a family vacation here. Anyway, your father and I will be home within a week._

_We love and miss you,_

_Mom_

Maiko held the letter in her fist tightly and wept tears of joy. Her parents who had been gone for so long were finally coming back just when everything was beginning to look up. She had an overwhelming urge to tell Masuyo about this new revelation as everything had begun to look up since their first session. Perhaps she would tell Daisuke and Kankuro as well.

"How fascinating," Masuyo commented after Maiko explained to her what had happened. Due to the sandstorm that day, their daily therapy session had been moved back to the hospital until the following day.

"So some Kusa courier just stops by your place and gives you a letter from your parents who have been absent since the war to tell you that they'll be home within a week?" her therapist recapped, "I'm sure it must feel overwhelming."

For once, Maiko wasn't slumped over in her seat, but rather was bolted straight up and exclaimed, "I feel like my life is slowly improving each week."

"And to think you've shown up for a session every day for the last twelve days," Masuyo added, "Most people barely last a week, but you've adamantly made it to every session. You should feel very proud of yourself."

"It feels like time's been passing really quickly," the brunette admitted, "Things feel great for once."

"To think, you're almost half-way through your sessions and we've already pinpointed most of your problems," her therapist added, boasting a bit, "What a pro I am!"

Maiko's thoughts turned to her lover, the puppet master Kankuro, "I just feel so much at ease when I'm around Kankuro and not to mention happy."

"That's good."

"So…..can I go back to work yet?"

Masuyo bit down on her pen, she couldn't believe her patient would ask such a thing so soon; it had to be a joke right?

"Your employer mentioned that you were to attend these sessions for a month or else you couldn't return to work," she sighed, "And honestly, if you stopped attending now you'd miss so much, 'cause we've really only touched the surface."

"But things have been going so well now," the brunette offered, "I feel like I'm in control of my anger so I must be fine!"

Her therapist's face fell into her hand, "How do I say this… Well, if you were to go back now, you'd relapse. There's no other way to put it. You might even relapse worse. We still have so much more that we have to do with you and we've only got a month to do it."

Hearing that disillusioned Maiko a bit, "What do you still have to do with me?"

"We have to fix the problem or give it a permanent antidote."

Maiko began to slump back down in her chair and turned to face the bare white walls that surrounded her. All she wanted was to return to her normal routine that she fell comfortably into but she couldn't. It was either stare at those same white washed walls for the remaining eighteen days of her sessions or never return to work and have to find other means to support herself.

The glum feeling stayed with her as she returned home and began to cook herself some dinner from her leftovers. By the time Daisuke had come over, she was still glum, so he sat down cross-legged at the other side of her low table.

"Maiko, are you alright?" he asked as sympathetic as he could.

The harlequin girl unenthusiastically pushed the small pieces of food around her plate then quietly answered him, "Yeah, I'm fine…long day."

"Well…Kame wanted me to invite you over for dinner this weekend," he shuffled, getting himself a comfortable place, "And I noticed you've been keeping your parent's house clean."

"Yeah…I got a letter from Mom today," she recalled, reaching over to her kitchenette counter that was behind her and pulling the letter she received earlier in the day down, "She said that her and Dad would be home in a week."

"Really? I can't wait to see my sister again, it's been a long time," the older man thought to himself, "She probably wouldn't believe that Kame's old club managed to get so popular."

"Um…about the club…"

There was one more thing that worried Maiko at the time, one that she didn't particularly bring up to Masuyo during their talks-she was beginning to rethink her choice in employment. There was just something about working as a dancer at a gentleman's club that she thought wouldn't sit well with her parents. Maybe it would be the preconceived conception that she was a dirty stripper making equally dirty money. Or that it would appear to her parents that her views on her own virginity had become looser, but she was afraid of letting her parents know about it, especially after the drunken brawl.

"You haven't mentioned my job at the Gentleman's Club to my parents have you…?"

"No," he thought back for a moment to the times that he had talked to them, "I don't think I have. Do you not want me to?"

"I would rather they not know," she put it bluntly, "I'm not sure they would approve of it."

Daisuke understood where she was coming from with that and promised, "I won't speak of it at all to them unless you want me to."

"Thank you Daisuke."

A set of knocks range out from the door of her apartment. She had a pretty good idea of who it was and almost immediately stood up to answer it. And as she thought, it was Kankuro-except without his usual shinobi getup and holding a bouquet of flowers. Daisuke, who remained at the opposite end of the low table, was amused with the sight.

"I thought I would stop over and visit," the puppet master noticed his favorite bartender sitting inside, "But I see you have company already."

"No, please, come in," she assured him. She figured that it would be a good opportunity to introduce Kankuro to Daisuke as her family, even though they had already become acquainted from opposite ends of the bar.

The older man stood and stepped over to him, holding out a hand to greet him, "I believe we've met before. I'm Maiko's uncle, Daisuke."

"And I'm the Kazekage's brother, Kankuro. I also remember meeting you before," they shook hands, "But I didn't know that you two were related."

"Small world I guess, eh?" Daisuke laughed, "I'm glad you're treating my niece so well." He looked from lover to lover and was sure that his appearance would be interrupting something, so he decided to make the decision to leave. He didn't want to spoil the moment for the young lovers and Kame could have her answer as to whether their niece would dine with them later.

"I think I'll be making my exit now," he quickly announced as Kankuro and Maiko shuffled to give him room, "I'll speak to you later Maiko!"

"Bye Daisuke!" she called after him as he walked out.

"Nice meeting you sir," Kankuro also called as the bartender left.

The two stepped inside and Maiko lightly closed the door behind them, "You didn't have to bring me flowers…"

The puppet master meanwhile was searching for some sort of container or vase to put them in, "You say that, but I wouldn't just show up uninvited without giving you something to match your beauty."

"You charm me," she giggled as her cheeks began to glow a light shade of pink. Kankuro found a nice small vase in one of her cabinets and filled it with enough water, fitting the bouquet inside of it and setting it down in the center of her table.

He turned back to his lady and embraced her, "I stopped by because I wanted to remind you how happy you've made me lately."

"I swear you tell me this every time you see me," she smiled as she lightly rubbed his back in circles, "You've made me happy as well."

The two stood in their embrace for a while before Maiko broke the silence to inform her lover of the news she had received that morning, since she had meant to tell him at some point anyway; "I got a letter from a courier from Kusa today, it was from my Mom, she said that she and my Dad would be coming home within a week."

"Oh, Maiko, that's great," he was genuinely happy for her to hear that, "I'm sure you've missed them."

"I have," she admitted but soon after, remembered that his own parents were both dead, "I'm sorry…your own…"

"It's ok," he assured her. He pulled her over to the cushion where she usually sat at her low table in an attempt to get comfortable.

"Kankuro…" She didn't continue to speak as she wasn't sure what she would say, she just wanted the comfortable feeling he gave her to continue. However, the doubts and fears that she had long kept continued to cloud her mind, even as she tried to block them out and enjoy Kankuro's presence. She didn't want to lose him this far in, not to anyone. And he sensed her growing discomfort and began to rub her back as well and kiss around her neck.

"What's on your mind?"

"Well…" she tried but once again but her words fell flat before they could leave her throat. As Kankuro continued to kiss at her neck, her body began to heat up like an oven as ice cold sweat drew from her pours. It was then that she realized what Masuyo was telling her earlier, she truly wasn't ready. And it was then that she knew what she was afraid of.

"I…" she pulled Kankuro's head from her neck to his surprise and forced his hands from her back. She stood up and quickly raced out the door, leaving a very nonplussed Kankuro sitting on her floor.

He raced to her door and called after her, "Maiko, what's wrong?" However, by the time he said a single syllable, she was too far from the apartments to hear him. While racing to her therapist's house Maiko finally came to terms with the fact that she was not only afraid of losing but she was also afraid of attachment.


End file.
